Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Coming Race

8/15/2019 Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Coming Race

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The Coming Race

by Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton

Chapter I.

I am a native of _____, in the United States of America. Myancestors migrated from England in the reign of Charles II.;and my grandfather was not undistinguished in the War of Independence. My family, therefore, enjoyed a somewhat highsocial position in right of birth; and being also opulent, theywere considered disqualified for the public service. My fatheronce ran for Congress, but was signally defeated by his tailor.After that event he interfered little in politics, and livedmuch in his library. I was the eldest of three sons, and sentat the age of sixteen to the old country, partly to complete myliterary education, partly to commence my commercial trainingin a mercantile firm at Liverpool. My father died shortlyafter I was twenty-one; and being left well off, and having ataste for travel and adventure, I resigned, for a time, all

pursuit of the almighty dollar, and became a desultory wandererover the face of the earth.

In the year 18__, happening to be in _____, I was invited by aprofessional engineer, with whom I had made acquaintance, tovisit the recesses of the ________ mine, upon which he wasemployed.

The reader will understand, ere he close this narrative, myreason for concealing all clue to the district of which I

write, and will perhaps thank me for refraining from anydescription that may tend to its discovery.

Let me say, then, as briefly as possible, that I accompaniedthe engineer into the interior of the mine, and became sostrangely fascinated by its gloomy wonders, and so interestedin my friend's explorations, that I prolonged my stay in theneighbourhood, and descended daily, for some weeks, into the



vaults and galleries hollowed by nature and art beneath thesurface of the earth. The engineer was persuaded that farricher deposits of mineral wealth than had yet been detected,would be found in a new shaft that had been commenced under hisoperations. In piercing this shaft we came one day upon a

chasm jagged and seemingly charred at the sides, as if burstasunder at some distant period by volcanic fires. Down thischasm my friend caused himself to be lowered in a 'cage,'having first tested the atmosphere by the safety-lamp. Heremained nearly an hour in the abyss. When he returned he wasvery pale, and with an anxious, thoughtful expression of face,very different from its ordinary character, which was open,cheerful, and fearless.

He said briefly that the descent appeared to him unsafe, andleading to no result; and, suspending further operations in theshaft, we returned to the more familiar parts of the mine.

All the rest of that day the engineer seemed preoccupied bysome absorbing thought. He was unusually taciturn, and therewas a scared, bewildered look in his eyes, as that of a man whohas seen a ghost. At night, as we two were sitting alone inthe lodging we shared together near the mouth of the mine, Isaid to my friend,-

"Tell me frankly what you saw in that chasm: I am sure it was

something strange and terrible. Whatever it be, it has leftyour mind in a state of doubt. In such a case two heads arebetter than one. Confide in me."

The engineer long endeavoured to evade my inquiries; but as,while he spoke, he helped himself unconsciously out of thebrandy-flask to a degree to which he was wholly unaccustomed,for he was a very temperate man, his reserve gradually meltedaway. He who would keep himself to himself should imitate the

dumb animals, and drink water. At last he said, "I will tellyou all. When the cage stopped, I found myself on a ridge of rock; and below me, the chasm, taking a slanting direction,shot down to a considerable depth, the darkness of which mylamp could not have penetrated. But through it, to my infinitesurprise, streamed upward a steady brilliant light. Could itbe any volcanic fire? In that case, surely I should have feltthe heat. Still, if on this there was doubt, it was of the



utmost importance to our common safety to clear it up. Iexamined the sides of the descent, and found that I couldventure to trust myself to the irregular projection of ledges,at least for some way. I left the cage and clambered down. AsI drew nearer and nearer to the light, the chasm became wider,

and at last I saw, to my unspeakable amaze, a broad level roadat the bottom of the abyss, illumined as far as the eye couldreach by what seemed artificial gas-lamps placed at regularintervals, as in the thoroughfare of a great city; and I heardconfusedly at a distance a hum as of human voices. I know, of course, that no rival miners are at work in this district.Whose could be those voices? What human hands could havelevelled that road and marshalled those lamps?

"The superstitious belief, common to miners, that gnomes orfiends dwell within the bowels of the earth, began to seize me.I shuddered at the thought of descending further and bravingthe inhabitants of this nether valley. Nor indeed could I havedone so without ropes, as from the spot I had reached to thebottom of the chasm the sides of the rock sank down abrupt,smooth, and sheer. I retraced my steps with some difficulty.Now I have told you all."

"You will descend again?"

"I ought, yet I feel as if I durst not."

"A trusty companion halves the journey and doubles the courage.I will go with you. We will provide ourselves with ropes of suitable length and strength- and- pardon me- you must notdrink more to-night. our hands and feet must be steady andfirm tomorrow."

Chapter II.

With the morning my friend's nerves were rebraced, and he wasnot less excited by curiosity than myself. Perhaps more; forhe evidently believed in his own story, and I felt considerabledoubt of it; not that he would have wilfully told an untruth,but that I thought he must have been under one of thosehallucinations which seize on our fancy or our nerves insolitary, unaccustomed places, and in which we give shape to



the formless and sound to the dumb.

We selected six veteran miners to watch our descent; and as thecage held only one at a time, the engineer descended first; andwhen he had gained the ledge at which he had before halted, the

cage rearose for me. I soon gained his side. We had providedourselves with a strong coil of rope.

The light struck on my sight as it had done the day before onmy friend's. The hollow through which it came slopeddiagonally: it seemed to me a diffused atmospheric light, notlike that from fire, but soft and silvery, as from a northernstar. Quitting the cage, we descended, one after the other,easily enough, owing to the juts in the side, till we reachedthe place at which my friend had previously halted, and whichwas a projection just spacious enough to allow us to standabreast. From this spot the chasm widened rapidly like thelower end of a vast funnel, and I saw distinctly the valley,the road, the lamps which my companion had described. He hadexaggerated nothing. I heard the sounds he had heard- amingled indescribable hum as of voices and a dull tramp as of feet. Straining my eye farther down, I clearly beheld at adistance the outline of some large building. It could not bemere natural rock, it was too symmetrical, with huge heavyEgyptian-like columns, and the whole lighted as from within. Ihad about me a small pocket-telescope, and by the aid of this,

I could distinguish, near the building I mention, two formswhich seemed human, though I could not be sure. At least theywere living, for they moved, and both vanished within thebuilding. We now proceeded to attach the end of the rope wehad brought with us to the ledge on which we stood, by the aidof clamps and grappling hooks, with which, as well as withnecessary tools, we were provided.

We were almost silent in our work. We toiled like men afraidto speak to each other. One end of the rope being thus

apparently made firm to the ledge, the other, to which wefastened a fragment of the rock, rested on the ground below, adistance of some fifty feet. I was a younger man and a moreactive man than my companion, and having served on board shipin my boyhood, this mode of transit was more familiar to methan to him. In a whisper I claimed the precedence, so thatwhen I gained the ground I might serve to hold the rope moresteady for his descent. I got safely to the ground beneath,



and the engineer now began to lower himself. But he hadscarcely accomplished ten feet of the descent, when thefastenings, which we had fancied so secure, gave way, or ratherthe rock itself proved treacherous and crumbled beneath thestrain; and the unhappy man was precipitated to the bottom,

falling just at my feet, and bringing down with his fallsplinters of the rock, one of which, fortunately but a smallone, struck and for the time stunned me. When I recovered mysenses I saw my companion an inanimate mass beside me, lifeutterly extinct. While I was bending over his corpse in grief and horror, I heard close at hand a strange sound between asnort and a hiss; and turning instinctively to the quarter fromwhich it came, I saw emerging from a dark fissure in the rock avast and terrible head, with open jaws and dull, ghastly,hungry eyes- the head of a monstrous reptile resembling that of the crocodile or alligator, but infinitely larger than thelargest creature of that kind I had ever beheld in my travels.I started to my feet and fled down the valley at my utmostspeed. I stopped at last, ashamed of my panic and my flight,and returned to the spot on which I had left the body of myfriend. It was gone; doubtless the monster had already drawnit into its den and devoured it. the rope and the grappling-hooks still lay where they had fallen, but they afforded me nochance of return; it was impossible to re-attach them to therock above, and the sides of the rock were too sheer and smoothfor human steps to clamber. I was alone in this strange world,

amidst the bowels of the earth.

Chapter III.

Slowly and cautiously I went my solitary way down the lamplitroad and towards the large building I have described. The roaditself seemed like a great Alpine pass, skirting rocky

mountains of which the one through whose chasm I had descendedformed a link. Deep below to the left lay a vast valley, whichpresented to my astonished eye the unmistakeable evidences of art and culture. There were fields covered with a strangevegetation, similar to none I have seen above the earth; thecolour of it not green, but rather of a dull and leaden hue orof a golden red.



There were lakes and rivulets which seemed to have been curvedinto artificial banks; some of pure water, others that shonelike pools of naphtha. At my right hand, ravines and defilesopened amidst the rocks, with passes between, evidentlyconstructed by art, and bordered by trees resembling, for the

most part, gigantic ferns, with exquisite varieties of featheryfoliage, and stems like those of the palm-tree. Others weremore like the cane-plant, but taller, bearing large clusters of flowers. Others, again, had the form of enormous fungi, withshort thick stems supporting a wide dome-like roof, from whicheither rose or drooped long slender branches. The whole scenebehind, before, and beside me far as the eye could reach, wasbrilliant with innumerable lamps. The world without a sun wasbright and warm as an Italian landscape at noon, but the airless oppressive, the heat softer. Nor was the scene before mevoid of signs of habitation. I could distinguish at adistance, whether on the banks of the lake or rivulet, orhalf-way upon eminences, embedded amidst the vegetation,buildings that must surely be the homes of men. I could evendiscover, though far off, forms that appeared to me humanmoving amidst the landscape. As I paused to gaze, I saw to theright, gliding quickly through the air, what appeared a smallboat, impelled by sails shaped like wings. It soon passed outof sight, descending amidst the shades of a forest. Rightabove me there was no sky, but only a cavernous roof. Thisroof grew higher and higher at the distance of the landscapes

beyond, till it became imperceptible, as an atmosphere of hazeformed itself beneath.

Continuing my walk, I started,- from a bush that resembled agreat tangle of sea-weeds, interspersed with fern-like shrubsand plants of large leafage shaped like that of the aloe orprickly-pear,- a curious animal about the size and shape of adeer. But as, after bounding away a few paces, it turned roundand gazed at me inquisitively, I perceived that it was not likeany species of deer now extant above the earth, but it brought

instantly to my recollection a plaster cast I had seen in somemuseum of a variety of the elk stag, said to have existedbefore the Deluge. The creature seemed tame enough, and, afterinspecting me a moment or two, began to graze on the singularherbiage around undismayed and careless.



Chapter IV.

I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had beenmade by hands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I

should have supposed it at the first glance to have been of theearliest form of Egyptian architecture. It was fronted by hugecolumns, tapering upward from massive plinths, and withcapitals that, as I came nearer, I perceived to be moreornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptianarchitecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of the acanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated thefoliage of the vegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like,some fern-like. And now there came out of this building aform- human;- was it human? It stood on the broad way andlooked around, beheld me and approached. It came within a fewyards of me, and at the sight and presence of it anindescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to theground. It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demonthat are seen on Etruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres- images that borrow the outlines of man, andare yet of another race. It was tall, not gigantic, but tallas the tallest man below the height of giants.

Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wingsfolded over its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of

its attire was composed of an under tunic and leggings of somethin fibrous material. It wore on its head a kind of tiarathat shone with jewels, and carried in its right hand a slenderstaff of bright metal like polished steel. But the face! itwas that which inspired my awe and my terror. It was the faceof man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extantraces. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression isthe face of the sculptured sphinx- so regular in its calm,intellectual, mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, morelike that of the red man than any other variety of our species,

and yet different from it- a richer and a softer hue, withlarge black eyes, deep and brilliant, and brows arched as asemicircle. The face was beardless; but a nameless somethingin the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteousthough the features, roused that instinct of danger which thesight of a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlikeimage was endowed with forces inimical to man. As it drewnear, a cold shudder came over me. I fell on my knees and



covered my face with my hands.

Chapter V.

A voice accosted me- a very quiet and very musical key of voice- in a language of which I could not understand a word,but it served to dispel my fear. I uncovered my face andlooked up. The stranger (I could scarcely bring myself to callhim man) surveyed me with an eye that seemed to read to thevery depths of my heart. He then placed his left hand on myforehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched myshoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. Inplace of my former terror there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of confidence in myself and in the beingbefore me. I rose and spoke in my own language. He listenedto me with apparent attention, but with a slight surprise inhis looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that I was notunderstood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silenceto the building. The entrance was open- indeed there was nodoor to it. We entered an immense hall, lighted by the samekind of lustre as in the scene without, but diffusing afragrant odour. The floor was in large tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of matlikecarpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated

as if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturallyto the place, just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs toa rocky landscape, or the warble of birds to vernal groves.

A figure in a simpler garb than that of my guide, but of similar fashion, was standing motionless near the threshold.My guide touched it twice with his staff, and it put itself into a rapid and gliding movement, skimming noiselessly overthe floor. Gazing on it, I then saw that it was no livingform, but a mechanical automaton. It might be two minutes

after it vanished through a doorless opening, half screened bycurtains at the other end of the hall, when through the sameopening advanced a boy of about twelve years old, with featuresclosely resembling those of my guide, so that they seemed to meevidently son and father. On seeing me the child uttered acry, and lifted a staff like that borne by my guide, as if inmenace. At a word from the elder he dropped it. The two thenconversed for some moments, examining me while they spoke. The



child touched my garments, and stroked my face with evidentcuriosity, uttering a sound like a laugh, but with an hilaritymore subdued that the mirth of our laughter. Presently theroof of the hall opened, and a platform descended, seeminglyconstructed on the same principle as the 'lifts' used in hotels

and warehouses for mounting from one story to another.

The stranger placed himself and the child on the platform, andmotioned to me to do the same, which I did. We ascendedquickly and safely, and alighted in the midst of a corridorwith doorways on either side.

Through one of these doorways I was conducted into a chamberfitted up with an oriental splendour; the walls were tesselatedwith spars, and metals, and uncut jewels; cushions and divansabounded; apertures as for windows but unglazed, were made inthe chamber opening to the floor; and as I passed along Iobserved that these openings led into spacious balconies, andcommanded views of the illumined landscape without. In cagessuspended from the ceiling there were birds of strange form andbright plumage, which at our entrance set up a chorus of song,modulated into tune as is that of our piping bullfinches. Adelicious fragrance, from censers of gold elaborately sculptured,filled the air. Several automata, like the one I had seen,stood dumb and motionless by the walls. The stranger placed mebeside him on a divan and again spoke to me, and again I spoke,

but without the least advance towards understanding each other.

But now I began to feel the effects of the blow I had receivedfrom the splinters of the falling rock more acutely that I haddone at first.

There came over me a sense of sickly faintness, accompaniedwith acute, lancinating pains in the head and neck. I sankback on the seat and strove in vain to stifle a groan. On thisthe child, who had hitherto seemed to eye me with distrust or

dislike, knelt by my side to support me; taking one of my handsin both his own, he approached his lips to my forehead,breathing on it softly. In a few moments my pain ceased; adrowsy, heavy calm crept over me; I fell asleep.

How long I remained in this state I know not, but when I woke Ifelt perfectly restored. My eyes opened upon a group of silentforms, seated around me in the gravity and quietude of



Orientals- all more or less like the first stranger; the samemantling wings, the same fashion of garment, the samesphinx-like faces, with the deep dark eyes and red man'scolour; above all, the same type of race- race akin to man's,but infinitely stronger of form and grandeur of aspect- and

inspiring the same unutterable feeling of dread. Yet eachcountenance was mild and tranquil, and even kindly inexpression. And, strangely enough, it seemed to me that inthis very calm and benignity consisted the secret of the dreadwhich the countenances inspired. They seemed as void of thelines and shadows which care and sorrow, and passion and sin,leave upon the faces of men, as are the faces of sculpturedgods, or as, in the eyes of Christian mourners, seem thepeaceful brows of the dead.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder; it was the child's. In hiseyes there was a sort of lofty pity and tenderness, such asthat with which we may gaze on some suffering bird orbutterfly. I shrank from that touch- I shrank from that eye.I was vaguely impressed with a belief that, had he so pleased,that child could have killed me as easily as a man can kill abird or a butterfly. The child seemed pained at my repugnance,quitted me, and placed himself beside one of the windows. Theothers continued to converse with each other in a low tone, andby their glances towards me I could perceive that I was theobject of their conversation. One in especial seemed to be

urging some proposal affecting me on the being whom I had firstmet, and this last by his gesture seemed about to assent to it,when the child suddenly quitted his post by the window, placedhimself between me and the other forms, as if in protection,and spoke quickly and eagerly. By some intuition or instinct Ifelt that the child I had before so dreaded was pleading in mybehalf. Ere he had ceased another stranger entered the room.He appeared older than the rest, though not old; hiscountenance less smoothly serene than theirs, though equallyregular in its features, seemed to me to have more the touch of

a humanity akin to my own. He listened quietly to the wordsaddressed to him, first by my guide, next by two others of thegroup, and lastly by the child; then turned towards myself, andaddressed me, not by words, but by signs and gestures. These Ifancied that I perfectly understood, and I was not mistaken. Icomprehended that he inquired whence I came. I extended myarm, and pointed towards the road which had led me from thechasm in the rock; then an idea seized me. I drew forth my



pocket-book, and sketched on one of its blank leaves a roughdesign of the ledge of the rock, the rope, myself clinging toit; then of the cavernous rock below, the head of the reptile,the lifeless form of my friend. I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my interrogator, who, after inspecting it

gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thus passedround the group. The being I had at first encountered thensaid a few words, and the child, who approached and looked atmy drawing, nodded as if he comprehended its purport, and,returning to the window, expanded the wings attached to hisform, shook them once or twice, and then launched himself intospace without. I started up in amaze and hastened to thewindow. The child was already in the air, buoyed on his wings,which he did not flap to and fro as a bird does, but which wereelevated over his head, and seemed to bear him steadily aloftwithout effort of his own. His flight seemed as swift as aneagle's; and I observed that it was towards the rock whence Ihad descended, of which the outline loomed visible in thebrilliant atmosphere. In a very few minutes he returned,skimming through the opening from which he had gone, anddropping on the floor the rope and grappling-hooks I had leftat the descent from the chasm. Some words in a low tone passedbetween the being present; one of the group touched anautomaton, which started forward and glided from the room; thenthe last comer, who had addressed me by gestures, rose, took meby the hand, and led me into the corridor. There the platform

by which I had mounted awaited us; we placed ourselves on itand were lowered into the hall below. My new companion, stillholding me by the hand, conducted me from the building into astreet (so to speak) that stretched beyond it, with buildingson either side, separated from each other by gardens brightwith rich-coloured vegetation and strange flowers.

Interspersed amidst these gardens, which were divided from eachother by low walls, or walking slowly along the road, were manyforms similar to those I had already seen. Some of the

passers-by, on observing me, approached my guide, evidently bytheir tones, looks, and gestures addressing to him inquiriesabout myself. In a few moments a crowd collected around us,examining me with great interest, as if I were some rare wildanimal. Yet even in gratifying their curiosity they preserveda grave and courteous demeanour; and after a few words from myguide, who seemed to me to deprecate obstruction in our road,they fell back with a stately inclination of head, and resumed



their own way with tranquil indifference. Midway in thisthoroughfare we stopped at a building that differed from thosewe had hitherto passed, inasmuch as it formed three sides of avast court, at the angles of which were lofty pyramidal towers;in the open space between the sides was a circular fountain of

colossal dimensions, and throwing up a dazzling spray of whatseemed to me fire. We entered the building through an opendoorway and came into an enormous hall, in which were severalgroups of children, all apparently employed in work as at somegreat factory. There was a huge engine in the wall which wasin full play, with wheels and cylinders resembling our ownsteam-engines, except that it was richly ornamented withprecious stones and metals, and appeared to emanate a palephosphorescent atmosphere of shifting light. Many of thechildren were at some mysterious work on this machinery, otherswere seated before tables. I was not allowed to linger longenough to examine into the nature of their employment. Not oneyoung voice was heard- not one young face turned to gaze on us.They were all still and indifferent as may be ghosts, throughthe midst of which pass unnoticed the forms of the living.

Quitting this hall, my guide led me through a gallery richlypainted in compartments, with a barbaric mixture of gold in thecolours, like pictures by Louis Cranach. The subjectsdescribed on these walls appeared to my glance as intended toillustrate events in the history of the race amidst which I was

admitted. In all there were figures, most of them like themanlike creatures I had seen, but not all in the same fashionof garb, nor all with wings. There were also the effigies of various animals and birds, wholly strange to me, withbackgrounds depicting landscapes or buildings. So far as myimperfect knowledge of the pictorial art would allow me to forman opinion, these paintings seemed very accurate in design andvery rich in colouring, showing a perfect knowledge of perspective, but their details not arranged according to therules of composition acknowledged by our artists- wanting, as

it were, a centre; so that the effect was vague, scattered,confused, bewildering- they were like heterogeneous fragmentsof a dream of art.

We now came into a room of moderate size, in which wasassembled what I afterwards knew to be the family of my guide,seated at a table spread as for repast. The forms thus groupedwere those of my guide's wife, his daughter, and two sons. I



recognised at once the difference between the two sexes, thoughthe two females were of taller stature and ampler proportionsthan the males; and their countenances, if still moresymmetrical in outline and contour, were devoid of the softnessand timidity of expression which give charm to the face of

woman as seen on the earth above. The wife wore no wings, thedaughter wore wings longer than those of the males.

My guide uttered a few words, on which all the persons seatedrose, and with that peculiar mildness of look and manner whichI have before noticed, and which is, in truth, the commonattribute of this formidable race, they saluted me according totheir fashion, which consists in laying the right hand verygently on the head and uttering a soft sibilant monosyllable-S.Si, equivalent to "Welcome."

The mistress of the house then seated me beside her, and heapeda golden platter before me from one of the dishes.

While I ate (and though the viands were new to me, I marvelledmore at the delicacy than the strangeness of their flavour), mycompanions conversed quietly, and, so far as I could detect,with polite avoidance of any direct reference to myself, or anyobtrusive scrutiny of my appearance. Yet I was the firstcreature of that variety of the human race to which I belongthat they had ever beheld, and was consequently regarded by

them as a most curious and abnormal phenomenon. But allrudeness is unknown to this people, and the youngest child istaught to despise any vehement emotional demonstration. whenthe meal was ended, my guide again took me by the hand, and,re-entering the gallery, touched a metallic plate inscribedwith strange figures, and which I rightly conjectured to be of the nature of our telegraphs. A platform descended, but thistime we mounted to a much greater height than in the formerbuilding, and found ourselves in a room of moderate dimensions,and which in its general character had much that might be

familiar to the associations of a visitor from the upper world.There were shelves on the wall containing what appeared to bebooks, and indeed were so; mostly very small, like our diamondduodecimos, shaped in the fashion of our volumes, and bound insheets of fine metal. There were several curious-lookingpieces of mechanism scattered about, apparently models, such asmight be seen in the study of any professional mechanician.Four automata (mechanical contrivances which, with these



people, answer the ordinary purposes of domestic service) stoodphantom-like at each angle in the wall. In a recess was a lowcouch, or bed with pillows. A window, with curtains of somefibrous material drawn aside, opened upon a large balcony. Myhost stepped out into the balcony; I followed him. We were on

the uppermost story of one of the angular pyramids; the viewbeyond was of a wild and solemn beauty impossible to describe:-the vast ranges of precipitous rock which formed the distantbackground, the intermediate valleys of mystic many-colouredherbiage, the flash of waters, many of them like streams of roseate flame, the serene lustre diffused over all by myriadsof lamps, combined to form a whole of which no words of minecan convey adequate description; so splendid was it, yet sosombre; so lovely, yet so awful.

But my attention was soon diverted from these nether landscapes.Suddenly there arose, as from the streets below, a burst of

joyous music; then a winged form soared into the space; anotheras if in chase of the first, another and another; others afterothers, till the crowd grew thick and the number countless.But how describe the fantastic grace of these forms in theirundulating movements! They appeared engaged in some sport oramusement; now forming into opposite squadrons; now scattering;now each group threading the other, soaring, descending,interweaving, severing; all in measured time to the musicbelow, as if in the dance of the fabled Peri.

I turned my gaze on my host in a feverish wonder. I venturedto place my hand on the large wings that lay folded on hisbreast, and in doing so a slight shock as of electricity passedthrough me. I recoiled in fear; my host smiled, and as if courteously to gratify my curiosity, slowly expanded hispinions. I observed that his garment beneath them becamedilated as a bladder that fills with air. The arms seemed toslide into the wings, and in another moment he had launchedhimself into the luminous atmosphere, and hovered there, still,

and with outspread wings, as an eagle that basks in the sun.Then, rapidly as an eagle swoops, he rushed downwards into themidst of one of the groups, skimming through the midst, and assuddenly again soaring aloft. Thereon, three forms, in one of which I thought to recognise my host's daughter, detachedthemselves from the rest, and followed him as a bird sportivelyfollows a bird. My eyes, dazzled with the lights andbewildered by the throngs, ceased to distinguish the gyrations



and evolutions of these winged playmates, till presently myhost re-emerged from the crowd and alighted at my side.

The strangeness of all I had seen began now to operate fast onmy senses; my mind itself began to wander. Though not inclined

to be superstitious, nor hitherto believing that man could bebrought into bodily communication with demons, I felt theterror and the wild excitement with which, in the Gothic ages,a traveller might have persuaded himself that he witnessed a'sabbat' of fiends and witches. I have a vague recollection of having attempted with vehement gesticulation, and forms of exorcism, and loud incoherent words, to repel my courteous andindulgent host; of his mild endeavors to calm and soothe me; of his intelligent conjecture that my fright and bewilderment wereoccasioned by the difference of form and movement between uswhich the wings that had excited my marvelling curiosity had,in exercise, made still more strongly perceptible; of thegentle smile with which he had sought to dispel my alarm bydropping the wings to the ground and endeavouring to show methat they were but a mechanical contrivance. That suddentransformation did but increase my horror, and as extremefright often shows itself by extreme daring, I sprang at histhroat like a wild beast. On an instant I was felled to theground as by an electric shock, and the last confused imagesfloating before my sight ere I became wholly insensible, werethe form of my host kneeling beside me with one hand on my

forehead, and the beautiful calm face of his daughter, withlarge, deep, inscrutable eyes intently fixed upon my own.

Chapter VI.

I remained in this unconscious state, as I afterwards learned,for many days, even for some weeks according to our computationof time. When I recovered I was in a strange room, my host and

all his family were gathered round me, and to my utter amaze myhost's daughter accosted me in my own language with a slightlyforeign accent.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

It was some moments before I could overcome my surprise enoughto falter out, "You know my language? How? Who and what are you?"



My host smiled and motioned to one of his sons, who then tookfrom a table a number of thin metallic sheets on which weretraced drawings of various figures- a house, a tree, a bird, aman, etc.

In these designs I recognised my own style of drawing. Undereach figure was written the name of it in my language, and inmy writing; and in another handwriting a word strange to mebeneath it.

Said the host, "Thus we began; and my daughter Zee, who belongsto the College of Sages, has been your instructress and ourstoo."

Zee then placed before me other metallic sheets, on which, inmy writing, words first, and then sentences, were inscribed.Under each word and each sentence strange characters in anotherhand. Rallying my senses, I comprehended that thus a rudedictionary had been effected. Had it been done while I wasdreaming? "That is enough now," said Zee, in a tone of command."Repose and take food."

Chapter VII.

A room to myself was assigned to me in this vast edifice. Itwas prettily and fantastically arranged, but without any of thesplendour of metal-work or gems which was displayed in the morepublic apartments. The walls were hung with a variegatedmatting made from the stalks and fibers of plants, and thefloor carpeted with the same.

The bed was without curtains, its supports of iron resting onballs of crystal; the coverings, of a thin white substance

resembling cotton. There were sundry shelves containing books.A curtained recess communicated with an aviary filled withsinging- birds, of which I did not recognise one resemblingthose I have seen on earth, except a beautiful species of dove,though this was distinguished from our doves by a tall crest of bluish plumes. All these birds had been trained to sing inartful tunes, and greatly exceeded the skill of our pipingbullfinches, which can rarely achieve more than two tunes, and



cannot, I believe, sing those in concert. One might havesupposed one's self at an opera in listening to the voices inmy aviary. There were duets and trios, and quartetts andchoruses, all arranged as in one piece of music. Did I wantsilence from the birds? I had but to draw a curtain over the

aviary, and their song hushed as they found themselves left inthe dark. Another opening formed a window, not glazed, but ontouching a spring, a shutter ascended from the floor, formed of some substance less transparent than glass, but stillsufficiently pellucid to allow a softened view of the scenewithout. To this window was attached a balcony, or ratherhanging garden, wherein grew many graceful plants and brilliantflowers. The apartment and its appurtenances had thus acharacter, if strange in detail, still familiar, as a whole, tomodern notions of luxury, and would have excited admiration if found attached to the apartments of an English duchess or afashionable French author. Before I arrived this was Zee'schamber; she had hospitably assigned it to me.

Some hours after the waking up which is described in my lastchapter, I was lying alone on my couch trying to fix mythoughts on conjecture as to the nature and genus of the peopleamongst whom I was thrown, when my host and his daughter Zeeentered the room. My host, still speaking my native language,inquired with much politeness, whether it would be agreeable tome to converse, or if I preferred solitude. I replied, that I

should feel much honoured and obliged by the opportunityoffered me to express my gratitude for the hospitality andcivilities I had received in a country to which I was a stranger,and to learn enough of its customs and manners not to offendthrough ignorance.

As I spoke, I had of course risen from my couch: but Zee, muchto my confusion, curtly ordered me to lie down again, and therewas something in her voice and eye, gentle as both were, thatcompelled my obedience. She then seated herself unconcernedly

at the foot of my bed, while her father took his place on adivan a few feet distant.

"But what part of the world do you come from?" asked my host,"that we should appear so strange to you and you to us? I haveseen individual specimens of nearly all the races differingfrom our own, except the primeval savages who dwell in the mostdesolate and remote recesses of uncultivated nature, unacquainted



with other light than that they obtain from volcanic fires, andcontented to grope their way in the dark, as do many creeping,crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be amember of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, doyou seem to belong to any civilised people."

I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and repliedthat I had the honour to belong to one of the most civilisednations of the earth; and that, so far as light was concerned,while I admired the ingenuity and disregard of expense withwhich my host and his fellow-citizens had contrived to illuminethe regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun, yet I couldnot conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heavencould compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented bythe necessities of man. But my host said he had seen specimensof most of the races differing from his own, save the wretchedbarbarians he had mentioned. Now, was it possible that he hadnever been on the surface of the earth, or could he only bereferring to communities buried within its entrails?

My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed adegree of surprise which the people of that race very rarelymanifest under any circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. ButZee was more intelligent, and exclaimed, "So you see, myfather, that there is truth in the old tradition; there alwaysis truth in every tradition commonly believed in all times and

by all tribes."

"Zee," said my host mildly, "you belong to the College of Sages, and ought to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of theLight-preserving Council, it is my duty to take nothing forgranted till it is proved to the evidence of my own senses."Then, turning to me, he asked me several questions about thesurface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon which,though I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answersseemed not to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head

quietly, and, changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how Ihad come down from what he was pleased to call one world to theother. I answered, that under the surface of the earth therewere mines containing minerals, or metals, essential to ourwants and our progress in all arts and industries; and I thenbriefly explained the manner in which, while exploring one of those mines, I and my ill-fated friend had obtained a glimpseof the regions into which we had descended, and how the descent



had cost him his life; appealing to the rope and grappling-hooks that the child had brought to the house in which I hadbeen at first received, as a witness of the truthfulness of mystory.

My host then proceeded to question me as to the habits andmodes of life among the races on the upper earth, moreespecially among those considered to be the most advanced inthat civilisation which he was pleased to define "the art of diffusing throughout a community the tranquil happiness whichbelongs to a virtuous and well-ordered household." Naturallydesiring to represent in the most favourable colours the worldfrom which I came, I touched but slightly, though indulgently,on the antiquated and decaying institutions of Europe, in orderto expatiate on the present grandeur and prospectivepre-eminence of that glorious American Republic, in whichEurope enviously seeks its model and tremblingly foresees itsdoom. Selecting for an example of the social life of theUnited States that city in which progress advances at thefastest rate, I indulged in an animated description of themoral habits of New York. Mortified to see, by the faces of mylisteners, that I did not make the favourable impression I hadanticipated, I elevated my theme; dwelling on the excellence of democratic institutions, their promotion of tranquil happinessby the government of party, and the mode in which they diffusedsuch happiness throughout the community by preferring, for the

exercise of power and the acquisition of honours, the lowliestcitizens in point of property, education, and character.Fortunately recollecting the peroration of a speech, on thepurifying influences of American democracy and their destinedspread over the world, made by a certain eloquent senator (forwhose vote in the Senate a Railway Company, to which my twobrothers belonged, had just paid 20,000 dollars), I wound up byrepeating its glowing predictions of the magnificent futurethat smiled upon mankind- when the flag of freedom should floatover an entire continent, and two hundred millions of

intelligent citizens, accustomed from infancy to the daily useof revolvers, should apply to a cowering universe the doctrineof the Patriot Monroe.

When I had concluded, my host gently shook his head, and fellinto a musing study, making a sign to me and his daughter toremain silent while he reflected. And after a time he said, ina very earnest and solemn tone, "If you think as you say, that



you, though a stranger, have received kindness at the hands of me and mine, I adjure you to reveal nothing to any other of ourpeople respecting the world from which you came, unless, onconsideration, I give you permission to do so. Do you consentto this request?"

"Of course I pledge my word, to it," said I, somewhat amazed;and I extended my right hand to grasp his. But he placed myhand gently on his forehead and his own right hand on mybreast, which is the custom amongst this race in all matters of promise or verbal obligations. Then turning to his daughter,he said, "And you, Zee, will not repeat to any one what thestranger has said, or may say, to me or to you, of a worldother than our own." Zee rose and kissed her father on thetemples, saying, with a smile, "A Gy's tongue is wanton, butlove can fetter it fast. And if, my father, you fear lest achance word from me or yourself could expose our community todanger, by a desire to explore a world beyond us, will not awave of the 'vril,' properly impelled, wash even the memory of what we have heard the stranger say out of the tablets of thebrain?"

"What is the vril?" I asked.

Therewith Zee began to enter into an explanation of which Iunderstood very little, for there is no word in any language I

know which is an exact synonym for vril. I should call itelectricity, except that it comprehends in its manifoldbranches other forces of nature, to which, in our scientificnomenclature, differing names are assigned, such as magnetism,galvanism, &c. These people consider that in vril they havearrived at the unity in natural energetic agencies, which hasbeen conjectured by many philosophers above ground, and whichFaraday thus intimates under the more cautious term of correlation:-

"I have long held an opinion," says that illustriousexperimentalist, "almost amounting to a conviction, in common,I believe, with many other lovers of natural knowledge, thatthe various forms under which the forces of matter are mademanifest, have one common origin; or, in other words, are sodirectly related and mutually dependent that they areconvertible, as it were into one another, and possessequivalents of power in their action."



These subterranean philosophers assert that by one operation of vril, which Faraday would perhaps call 'atmospheric magnetism,'they can influence the variations of temperature- in plainwords, the weather; that by operations, akin to those ascribed

to mesmerism, electro-biology, odic force, &c., but appliedscientifically, through vril conductors, they can exerciseinfluence over minds, and bodies animal and vegetable, to anextent not surpassed in the romances of our mystics. To allsuch agencies they give the common name of vril. Zee asked meif, in my world, it was not known that all the faculties of themind could be quickened to a degree unknown in the wakingstate, by trance or vision, in which the thoughts of one braincould be transmitted to another, and knowledge be thus rapidlyinterchanged. I replied, that there were amongst us storiestold of such trance or vision, and that I had heard much andseen something in mesmeric clairvoyance; but that thesepractices had fallen much into disuse or contempt, partlybecause of the gross impostures to which they had been madesubservient, and partly because, even where the effects uponcertain abnormal constitutions were genuinely produced, theeffects when fairly examined and analysed, were veryunsatisfactory- not to be relied upon for any systematictruthfulness or any practical purpose, and rendered verymischievous to credulous persons by the superstitions theytended to produce. Zee received my answers with much benignant

attention, and said that similar instances of abuse andcredulity had been familiar to their own scientific experiencein the infancy of their knowledge, and while the properties of vril were misapprehended, but that she reserved furtherdiscussion on this subject till I was more fitted to enter intoit. She contented herself with adding, that it was through theagency of vril, while I had been placed in the state of trance,that I had been made acquainted with the rudiments of theirlanguage; and that she and her father, who alone of the family,took the pains to watch the experiment, had acquired a greater

proportionate knowledge of my language than I of their own;partly because my language was much simpler than theirs,comprising far less of complex ideas; and partly because theirorganisation was, by hereditary culture, much more ductile andmore readily capable of acquiring knowledge than mine. At thisI secretly demurred; and having had in the course of apractical life, to sharpen my wits, whether at home or intravel, I could not allow that my cerebral organisation could





Chapter IX.

It was not for some time, and until, by repeated trances, if they are to be so called, my mind became better prepared to

interchange ideas with my entertainers, and more fully tocomprehend differences of manners and customs, at first toostrange to my experience to be seized by my reason, that I wasenabled to gather the following details respecting the originand history of the subterranean population, as portion of onegreat family race called the Ana.

According to the earliest traditions, the remote progenitors of the race had once tenanted a world above the surface of that inwhich their descendants dwelt. Myths of that world were stillpreserved in their archives, and in those myths were legends of a vaulted dome in which the lamps were lighted by no humanhand. But such legends were considered by most commentators asallegorical fables. According to these traditions the earthitself, at the date to which the traditions ascend, was notindeed in its infancy, but in the throes and travail of transition from one form of development to another, and subjectto many violent revolutions of nature. By one of suchrevolutions, that portion of the upper world inhabited by theancestors of this race had been subjected to inundations, notrapid, but gradual and uncontrollable, in which all, save a

scanty remnant, were submerged and perished. Whether this be arecord of our historical and sacred Deluge, or of some earlierone contended for by geologists, I do not pretend toconjecture; though, according to the chronology of this peopleas compared with that of Newton, it must have been manythousands of years before the time of Noah. On the other hand,the account of these writers does not harmonise with theopinions most in vogue among geological authorities, inasmuchas it places the existence of a human race upon earth at dateslong anterior to that assigned to the terrestrial formation

adapted to the introduction of mammalia. A band of theill-fated race, thus invaded by the Flood, had, during themarch of the waters, taken refuge in caverns amidst the loftierrocks, and, wandering through these hollows, they lost sight of the upper world forever. Indeed, the whole face of the earthhad been changed by this great revulsion; land had been turnedinto sea- sea into land. In the bowels of the inner earth,even now, I was informed as a positive fact, might be



discovered the remains of human habitation- habitation not inhuts and caverns, but in vast cities whose ruins attest thecivilisation of races which flourished before the age of Noah,and are not to be classified with those genera to whichphilosophy ascribes the use of flint and the ignorance of iron.

The fugitives had carried with them the knowledge of the artsthey had practised above ground- arts of culture andcivilisation. Their earliest want must have been that of supplying below the earth the light they had lost above it; andat no time, even in the traditional period, do the races, of which the one I now sojourned with formed a tribe, seem to havebeen unacquainted with the art of extracting light from gases,or manganese, or petroleum. They had been accustomed in theirformer state to contend with the rude forces of nature; andindeed the lengthened battle they had fought with theirconqueror Ocean, which had taken centuries in its spread, hadquickened their skill in curbing waters into dikes and channels.To this skill they owed their preservation in their new abode."For many generations," said my host, with a sort of contemptand horror, "these primitive forefathers are said to havedegraded their rank and shortened their lives by eating theflesh of animals, many varieties of which had, like themselves,escaped the Deluge, and sought shelter in the hollows of theearth; other animals, supposed to be unknown to the upper world,those hollows themselves produced."

When what we should term the historical age emerged from thetwilight of tradition, the Ana were already established indifferent communities, and had attained to a degree of civilisation very analogous to that which the more advancednations above the earth now enjoy. They were familiar withmost of our mechanical inventions, including the application of steam as well as gas. The communities were in fiercecompetition with each other. They had their rich and theirpoor; they had orators and conquerors; they made war either for

a domain or an idea. Though the various states acknowledgedvarious forms of government, free institutions were beginningto preponderate; popular assemblies increased in power;republics soon became general; the democracy to which the mostenlightened European politicians look forward as the extremegoal of political advancement, and which still prevailed amongother subterranean races, whom they despised as barbarians, theloftier family of Ana, to which belonged the tribe I was



visiting, looked back to as one of the crude and ignorantexperiments which belong to the infancy of political science.It was the age of envy and hate, of fierce passions, of constant social changes more or less violent, of strife betweenclasses, of war between state and state. This phase of society

lasted, however, for some ages, and was finally brought to aclose, at least among the nobler and more intellectualpopulations, by the gradual discovery of the latent powersstored in the all-permeating fluid which they denominate Vril.

According to the account I received from Zee, who, as anerudite professor of the College of Sages, had studied suchmatters more diligently than any other member of my host'sfamily, this fluid is capable of being raised and disciplinedinto the mightiest agency over all forms of matter, animate orinanimate. It can destroy like the flash of lightning; yet,differently applied, it can replenish or invigorate life, heal,and preserve, and on it they chiefly rely for the cure of disease, or rather for enabling the physical organisation tore-establish the due equilibrium of its natural powers, andthereby to cure itself. By this agency they rend way throughthe most solid substances, and open valleys for culture throughthe rocks of their subterranean wilderness. From it theyextract the light which supplies their lamps, finding itsteadier, softer, and healthier than the other inflammablematerials they had formerly used.

But the effects of the alleged discovery of the means to directthe more terrible force of vril were chiefly remarkable intheir influence upon social polity. As these effects becamefamiliarly known and skillfully administered, war between thevril-discoverers ceased, for they brought the art of destruction to such perfection as to annul all superiority innumbers, discipline, or military skill. The fire lodged in thehollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatterthe strongest fortress, or cleave its burning way from the van

to the rear of an embattled host. If army met army, and bothhad command of this agency, it could be but to the annihilationof each. The age of war was therefore gone, but with thecessation of war other effects bearing upon the social statesoon became apparent. Man was so completely at the mercy of man, each whom he encountered being able, if so willing, toslay him on the instant, that all notions of government byforce gradually vanished from political systems and forms of



law. It is only by force that vast communities, dispersedthrough great distances of space, can be kept together; but nowthere was no longer either the necessity of self-preservationor the pride of aggrandisement to make one state desire topreponderate in population over another.

The Vril-discoverers thus, in the course of a few generations,peacefully split into communities of moderate size. The tribeamongst which I had fallen was limited to 12,000 families.Each tribe occupied a territory sufficient for all its wants,and at stated periods the surplus population departed to seek arealm of its own. There appeared no necessity for anyarbitrary selection of these emigrants; there was always asufficient number who volunteered to depart.

These subdivided states, petty if we regard either territory orpopulation,- all appertained to one vast general family. Theyspoke the same language, though the dialects might slightlydiffer. They intermarried; They maintained the same generallaws and customs; and so important a bond between these severalcommunities was the knowledge of vril and the practice of itsagencies, that the word A-Vril was synonymous withcivilisation; and Vril-ya, signifying "The Civilised Nations,"was the common name by which the communities employing the usesof vril distinguished themselves from such of the Ana as wereyet in a state of barbarism.

The government of the tribe of Vril-ya I am treating of wasapparently very complicated, really very simple. It was basedupon a principle recognised in theory, though little carriedout in practice, above ground- viz., that the object of allsystems of philosophical thought tends to the attainment of unity, or the ascent through all intervening labyrinths to thesimplicity of a single first cause or principle. Thus inpolitics, even republican writers have agreed that a benevolentautocracy would insure the best administration, if there were

any guarantees for its continuance, or against its gradualabuse of the powers accorded to it. This singular communityelected therefore a single supreme magistrate styled Tur; heheld his office nominally for life, but he could seldom beinduced to retain it after the first approach of old age.There was indeed in this society nothing to induce any of itsmembers to covet the cares of office. No honours, no insigniaof higher rank, were assigned to it. The supreme magistrate



was not distinguished from the rest by superior habitation orrevenue. On the other hand, the duties awarded to him weremarvellously light and easy, requiring no preponderant degreeof energy or intelligence. There being no apprehensions of war, there were no armies to maintain; there being no

government of force, there was no police to appoint and direct.What we call crime was utterly unknown to the Vril-ya; andthere were no courts of criminal justice. The rare instancesof civil disputes were referred for arbitration to friendschosen by either party, or decided by the Council of Sages,which will be described later. There were no professionallawyers; and indeed their laws were but amicable conventions,for there was no power to enforce laws against an offender whocarried in his staff the power to destroy his judges. Therewere customs and regulations to compliance with which, forseveral ages, the people had tacitly habituated themselves; orif in any instance an individual felt such compliance hard, hequitted the community and went elsewhere. There was, in fact,quietly established amid this state, much the same compact thatis found in our private families, in which we virtually say toany independent grown-up member of the family whom we receiveto entertain, "Stay or go, according as our habits andregulations suit or displease you." But though there were nolaws such as we call laws, no race above ground is solaw-observing. Obedience to the rule adopted by the communityhas become as much an instinct as if it were implanted by

nature. Even in every household the head of it makes aregulation for its guidance, which is never resisted nor evencavilled at by those who belong to the family. They have aproverb, the pithiness of which is much lost in thisparaphrase, "No happiness without order, no order withoutauthority, no authority without unity." The mildness of allgovernment among them, civil or domestic, may be signalised bytheir idiomatic expressions for such terms as illegal orforbidden- viz., "It is requested not to do so and so." Povertyamong the Ana is as unknown as crime; not that property is held

in common, or that all are equals in the extent of theirpossessions or the size and luxury of their habitations: butthere being no difference of rank or position between thegrades of wealth or the choice of occupations, each pursues hisown inclinations without creating envy or vying; some like amodest, some a more splendid kind of life; each makes himself happy in his own way. Owing to this absence of competition,and the limit placed on the population, it is difficult for a





paw, and still more receding frontal. It haunts the side of lakesand pools, and feeds principally on fishes, though it does notobject to any terrestrial animal of inferior strength that comes inits way. It is becoming very scarce even in the wild districts,where it is devoured by gigantic reptiles. I apprehended that it

clearly belongs to the tiger species, since the parasite animalculefound in its paw, like that in the Asiatic tiger, is a miniatureimage of itself.

But the researches of the sages are not confined to such subtleor elegant studies. They comprise various others moreimportant, and especially the properties of vril, to theperception of which their finer nervous organisation rendersthe female Professors eminently keen. It is out of thiscollege that the Tur, or chief magistrate, selects Councillors,limited to three, in the rare instances in which novelty of event or circumstance perplexes his own judgment.

There are a few other departments of minor consequence, but allare carried on so noiselessly, and quietly that the evidence of a government seems to vanish altogether, and social order to beas regular and unobtrusive as if it were a law of nature.Machinery is employed to an inconceivable extent in all theoperations of labour within and without doors, and it is theunceasing object of the department charged with itsadministration to extend its efficiency. There is no class of

labourers or servants, but all who are required to assist orcontrol the machinery are found in the children, from the timethey leave the care of their mothers to the marriageable age,which they place at sixteen for the Gy-ei (the females), twentyfor the Ana (the males). These children are formed into bandsand sections under their own chiefs, each following thepursuits in which he is most pleased, or for which he feelshimself most fitted. Some take to handicrafts, some toagriculture, some to household work, and some to the onlyservices of danger to which the population is exposed; for the

sole perils that threaten this tribe are, first, from thoseoccasional convulsions within the earth, to foresee and guardagainst which tasks their utmost ingenuity- irruptions of fireand water, the storms of subterranean winds and escaping gases.At the borders of the domain, and at all places where suchperil might be apprehended, vigilant inspectors are stationedwith telegraphic communications to the hall in which chosensages take it by turns to hold perpetual sittings. These



inspectors are always selected from the elder boys approachingthe age of puberty, and on the principle that at that ageobservation is more acute and the physical forces more alertthan at any other. The second service of danger, less grave,is in the destruction of all creatures hostile to the life, or

the culture, or even the comfort, of the Ana. Of these themost formidable are the vast reptiles, of some of whichantediluvian relics are preserved in our museums, and certaingigantic winged creatures, half bird, half reptile. These,together with lesser wild animals, corresponding to our tigersor venomous serpents, it is left to the younger children tohunt and destroy; because, according to the Ana, hereruthlessness is wanted, and the younger the child the moreruthlessly he will destroy. There is another class of animalsin the destruction of which discrimination is to be used, andagainst which children of intermediate age are appointed-animals that do not threaten the life of man, but ravage theproduce of his labour, varieties of the elk and deer species,and a smaller creature much akin to our rabbit, thoughinfinitely more destructive to crops, and much more cunning inits mode of depredation. It is the first object of theseappointed infants, to tame the more intelligent of such animalsinto respect for enclosures signalised by conspicuouslandmarks, as dogs are taught to respect a larder, or even toguard the master's property. It is only where such creaturesare found untamable to this extent that they are destroyed.

Life is never taken away for food or for sport, and neverspared where untamably inimical to the Ana. Concomitantly withthese bodily services and tasks, the mental education of thechildren goes on till boyhood ceases. It is the general custom,then, to pass though a course of instruction at the College of Sages, in which, besides more general studies, the pupil receivesspecial lessons in such vocation or direction of intellect as hehimself selects. Some, however, prefer to pass this period of probation in travel, or to emigrate, or to settle down at onceinto rural or commercial pursuits. No force is put upon

individual inclination.

Chapter X.

The word Ana (pronounced broadly 'Arna') corresponds with ourplural 'men;' An (pronounced 'Arn'), the singular, with 'man.'



The word for woman is Gy (pronounced hard, as in Guy); it formsitself into Gy-ei for the plural, but the G becomes soft in theplural like Jy-ei. They have a proverb to the effect that thisdifference in pronunciation is symbolical, for that the femalesex is soft in the concrete, but hard to deal with in the

individual. The Gy-ei are in the fullest enjoyment of all therights of equality with males, for which certain philosophersabove ground contend.

In childhood they perform the offices of work and labourimpartially with the boys, and, indeed, in the earlier ageappropriated to the destruction of animals irreclaimablyhostile, the girls are frequently preferred, as being byconstitution more ruthless under the influence of fear or hate.In the interval between infancy and the marriageable agefamiliar intercourse between the sexes is suspended. At themarriageable age it is renewed, never with worse consequencesthan those which attend upon marriage. All arts and vocationsallotted to the one sex are open to the other, and the Gy-eiarrogate to themselves a superiority in all those abstruse andmystical branches of reasoning, for which they say the Ana areunfitted by a duller sobriety of understanding, or the routineof their matter-of-fact occupations, just as young ladies in ourown world constitute themselves authorities in the subtlestpoints of theological doctrine, for which few men, activelyengaged in worldly business have sufficient learning or

refinement of intellect. Whether owing to early training ingymnastic exercises, or to their constitutional organisation,the Gy-ei are usually superior to the Ana in physical strength(an important element in the consideration and maintenance of female rights). They attain to loftier stature, and amid theirrounder proportions are imbedded sinews and muscles as hardy asthose of the other sex. Indeed they assert that, according tothe original laws of nature, females were intended to be largerthan males, and maintain this dogma by reference to the earliestformations of life in insects, and in the most ancient family of

the vertebrata- viz., fishes- in both of which the females aregenerally large enough to make a meal of their consorts if theyso desire. Above all, the Gy-ei have a readier and moreconcentred power over that mysterious fluid or agency whichcontains the element of destruction, with a larger portion of that sagacity which comprehends dissimulation. Thus they cannotonly defend themselves against all aggressions from the males,but could, at any moment when he least expected his danger,



terminate the existence of an offending spouse. To the creditof the Gy-ei no instance of their abuse of this awfulsuperiority in the art of destruction is on record for severalages. The last that occurred in the community I speak of appears (according to their chronology) to have been about two

thousand years ago. A Gy, then, in a fit of jealousy, slew herhusband; and this abominable act inspired such terror among themales that they emigrated in a body and left all the Gy-ei tothemselves. The history runs that the widowed Gy-ei, thusreduced to despair, fell upon the murderess when in her sleep(and therefore unarmed), and killed her, and then entered into asolemn obligation amongst themselves to abrogate forever theexercise of their extreme conjugal powers, and to inculcate thesame obligation for ever and ever on their female children. Bythis conciliatory process, a deputation despatched to thefugitive consorts succeeded in persuading many to return, butthose who did return were mostly the elder ones. The younger,either from too craven a doubt of their consorts, or too high anestimate of their own merits, rejected all overtures, and,remaining in other communities, were caught up there by othermates, with whom perhaps they were no better off. But the lossof so large a portion of the male youth operated as a salutarywarning on the Gy-ei, and confirmed them in the pious resolutionto which they pledged themselves. Indeed it is now popularlyconsidered that, by long hereditary disuse, the Gy-ei have lostboth the aggressive and defensive superiority over the Ana which

they once possessed, just as in the inferior animals above theearth many peculiarities in their original formation, intendedby nature for their protection, gradually fade or becomeinoperative when not needed under altered circumstances. Ishould be sorry, however, for any An who induced a Gy to makethe experiment whether he or she were the stronger.

From the incident I have narrated, the Ana date certainalterations in the marriage customs, tending, perhaps, somewhatto the advantage of the male. They now bind themselves in

wedlock only for three years; at the end of each third yeareither male or female can divorce the other and is free tomarry again. At the end of ten years the An has the privilegeof taking a second wife, allowing the first to retire if she soplease. These regulations are for the most part a dead letter;divorces and polygamy are extremely rare, and the marriagestate now seems singularly happy and serene among thisastonishing people;- the Gy-ei, notwithstanding their boastful







possible at such a depth- certainly not warmer than the south of France, or at least of Italy. And according to all the accountsI received, vast tracts immeasurably deeper beneath the surface,and in which one might have thought only salamanders couldexist, were inhabited by innumerable races organised like

ourselves, I cannot pretend in any way to account for a factwhich is so at variance with the recognised laws of science, norcould Zee much help me towards a solution of it. She did butconjecture that sufficient allowance had not been made by ourphilosophers for the extreme porousness of the interior earth-the vastness of its cavities and irregularities, which served tocreate free currents of air and frequent winds- and for thevarious modes in which heat is evaporated and thrown off. Sheallowed, however, that there was a depth at which the heat wasdeemed to be intolerable to such organised life as was known tothe experience of the Vril-ya, though their philosophersbelieved that even in such places life of some kind, lifesentient, life intellectual, would be found abundant andthriving, could the philosophers penetrate to it. "Wherever theAll-Good builds," said she, "there, be sure, He placesinhabitants. He loves not empty dwellings." She added,however, that many changes in temperature and climate had beeneffected by the skill of the Vril-ya, and that the agency of vril had been successfully employed in such changes. Shedescribed a subtle and life-giving medium called Lai, which Isuspect to be identical with the ethereal oxygen of Dr. Lewins,

wherein work all the correlative forces united under the name of vril; and contended that wherever this medium could be expanded,as it were, sufficiently for the various agencies of vril tohave ample play, a temperature congenial to the highest forms of life could be secured. She said also, that it was the belief of their naturalists that flowers and vegetation had been producedoriginally (whether developed from seeds borne from the surfaceof the earth in the earlier convulsions of nature, or importedby the tribes that first sought refuge in cavernous hollows)through the operations of the light constantly brought to bear

on them, and the gradual improvement in culture. She said also,that since the vril light had superseded all other light-givingbodies, the colours of flower and foliage had become morebrilliant, and vegetation had acquired larger growth.

Leaving these matters to the consideration of those bettercompetent to deal with them, I must now devote a few pages to







which I have said so much; Veed, an immortal spirit; Veed-ya,immortality; Koom, pronounced like the Welsh Cwm, denotessomething of hollowness. Koom itself is a cave; Koom-in, a hole;Zi-koom, a valley; Koom-zi, vacancy or void; Bodh-koom,ignorance (literally, knowledge-void). Koom-posh is their name

for the government of the many, or the ascendancy of the mostignorant or hollow. Posh is an almost untranslatable idiom,implying, as the reader will see later, contempt. The closestrendering I can give to it is our slang term, "bosh;" and thisKoom-Posh may be loosely rendered "Hollow-Bosh." But whenDemocracy or Koom-Posh degenerates from popular ignorance intothat popular passion or ferocity which precedes its decease, as(to cite illustrations from the upper world) during the FrenchReign of Terror, or for the fifty years of the Roman Republicpreceding the ascendancy of Augustus, their name for that stateof things is Glek-Nas. Ek is strife- Glek, the universal strife.Nas, as I before said, is corruption or rot; thus, Glek-Nas maybe construed, "the universal strife-rot." Their compounds arevery expressive; thus, Bodh being knowledge, and Too aparticiple that implies the action of cautiously approaching,-Too-bodh is their word for Philosophy; Pah is a contemptuousexclamation analogous to our idiom, "stuff and nonsense;"Pah-bodh (literally stuff and nonsense-knowledge) is their termfor futile and false philosophy, and applied to a species of metaphysical or speculative ratiocination formerly in vogue,which consisted in making inquiries that could not be answered,

and were not worth making; such, for instance, as "Why does anAn have five toes to his feet instead of four or six? Did thefirst An, created by the All-Good, have the same number of toesas his descendants? In the form by which an An will berecognised by his friends in the future state of being, will heretain any toes at all, and, if so, will they be material toesor spiritual toes?" I take these illustrations of Pahbodh, notin irony or jest, but because the very inquiries I name formedthe subject of controversy by the latest cultivators of that'science,'- 4000 years ago.

In the declension of nouns I was informed that anciently therewere eight cases (one more than in the Sanskrit Grammar); butthe effect of time has been to reduce these cases, andmultiply, instead of these varying terminations, explanatorypropositions. At present, in the Grammar submitted to mystudy, there were four cases to nouns, three having varyingterminations, and the fourth a differing prefix.





from which we ought to be averse. Poo-pra, disgust; Poo-naria,falsehood, the vilest kind of evil. Poosh or Posh I havealready confessed to be untranslatable literally. It is anexpression of contempt not unmixed with pity. This radicalseems to have originated from inherent sympathy between the

labial effort and the sentiment that impelled it, Poo being anutterance in which the breath is exploded from the lips withmore or less vehemence. On the other hand, Z, when an initial,is with them a sound in which the breath is sucked inward, andthus Zu, pronounced Zoo (which in their language is oneletter), is the ordinary prefix to words that signify somethingthat attracts, pleases, touches the heart- as Zummer, lover;Zutze, love; Zuzulia, delight. This indrawn sound of Z seemsindeed naturally appropriate to fondness. Thus, even in ourlanguage, mothers say to their babies, in defiance of grammar,"Zoo darling;" and I have heard a learned professor at Bostoncall his wife (he had been only married a month) "Zoo littlepet."

I cannot quit this subject, however, without observing by whatslight changes in the dialects favoured by different tribes of the same race, the original signification and beauty of soundsmay become confused and deformed. Zee told me with muchindignation that Zummer (lover) which in the way she utteredit, seemed slowly taken down to the very depths of her heart,was, in some not very distant communities of the Vril-ya,

vitiated into the half-hissing, half-nasal, whollydisagreeable, sound of Subber. I thought to myself it onlywanted the introduction of 'n' before 'u' to render it into anEnglish word significant of the last quality an amorous Gywould desire in her Zummer.

I will but mention another peculiarity in this language whichgives equal force and brevity to its forms of expressions.

A is with them, as with us, the first letter of the alphabet,

and is often used as a prefix word by itself to convey acomplex idea of sovereignty or chiefdom, or presidingprinciple. For instance, Iva is goodness; Diva, goodness andhappiness united; A-Diva is unerring and absolute truth. Ihave already noticed the value of A in A-glauran, so, in vril(to whose properties they trace their present state of civilisation), A-vril, denotes, as I have said, civilisationitself.





all believe in the creed they profess; secondly, that they allpractice the precepts which the creed inculcates. They unitein the worship of one divine Creator and Sustainer of theuniverse. They believe that it is one of the properties of theall-permeating agency of vril, to transmit to the well-spring

of life and intelligence every thought that a living creaturecan conceive; and though they do not contend that the idea of aDiety is innate, yet they say that the An (man) is the onlycreature, so far as their observation of nature extends, towhom 'the capacity of conceiving that idea,' with all thetrains of thought which open out from it, is vouchsafed. Theyhold that this capacity is a privilege that cannot have beengiven in vain, and hence that prayer and thanksgiving areacceptable to the divine Creator, and necessary to the completedevelopment of the human creature. They offer their devotionsboth in private and public. Not being considered one of theirspecies, I was not admitted into the building or temple inwhich the public worship is rendered; but I am informed thatthe service is exceedingly short, and unattended with any pompof ceremony. It is a doctrine with the Vril-ya, that earnestdevotion or complete abstraction from the actual world cannot,with benefit to itself, be maintained long at a stretch by thehuman mind, especially in public, and that all attempts to doso either lead to fanaticism or to hypocrisy. When they prayin private, it is when they are alone or with their youngchildren.

They say that in ancient times there was a great number of books written upon speculations as to the nature of the Diety,and upon the forms of belief or worship supposed to be mostagreeable to Him. But these were found to lead to such heatedand angry disputations as not only to shake the peace of thecommunity and divide families before the most united, but inthe course of discussing the attributes of the Diety, theexistence of the Diety Himself became argued away, or, what wasworse, became invested with the passions and infirmities of the

human disputants. "For," said my host, "since a finite beinglike an An cannot possibly define the Infinite, so, when heendeavours to realise an idea of the Divinity, he only reducesthe Divinity into an An like himself." During the later ages,therefore, all theological speculations, though not forbidden,have been so discouraged as to have fallen utterly into disuse.The Vril-ya unite in a conviction of a future state, morefelicitous and more perfect than the present. If they have





circumstances beyond its control, exceedingly wretched comparedto its neighbours- one only exists as the prey of another- evena plant suffers from disease till it perishes prematurely,while the plant next to it rejoices in its vitality and livesout its happy life free from a pang. That it is an erroneous

analogy from human infirmities to reply by saying that theSupreme Being only acts by general laws, thereby making his ownsecondary causes so potent as to mar the essential kindness of the First Cause; and a still meaner and more ignorantconception of the All-Good, to dismiss with a brief contemptall consideration of justice for the myriad forms into which Hehas infused life, and assume that justice is only due to thesingle product of the An. There is no small and no great inthe eyes of the divine Life-Giver. But once grant thatnothing, however humble, which feels that it lives and suffers,can perish through the series of ages, that all its sufferinghere, if continuous from the moment of its birth to that of itstransfer to another form of being, would be more brief comparedwith eternity than the cry of the new-born is compared to thewhole life of a man; and once suppose that this living thingretains its sense of identity when so transformed (for withoutthat sense it could be aware of no future being), and though,indeed, the fulfilment of divine justice is removed from thescope of our ken, yet we have a right to assume it to beuniform and universal, and not varying and partial, as it wouldbe if acting only upon general and secondary laws; because such

perfect justice flows of necessity from perfectness of knowledge to conceive, perfectness of love to will, andperfectness of power to complete it.

However fantastic this belief of the Vril-ya may be, it tendsperhaps to confirm politically the systems of government which,admitting different degrees of wealth, yet establishes perfectequality in rank, exquisite mildness in all relations andintercourse, and tenderness to all created things which the goodof the community does not require them to destroy. And though

their notion of compensation to a tortured insect or a cankeredflower may seem to some of us a very wild crotchet, yet, atleast, is not a mischievous one; and it may furnish matter forno unpleasing reflection to think that within the abysses of earth, never lit by a ray from the material heavens, thereshould have penetrated so luminous a conviction of the ineffablegoodness of the Creator- so fixed an idea that the general lawsby which He acts cannot admit of any partial injustice or evil,









solidity. They reminded me of the architectural pictures of Martin. Along the upper stories of each ran a balcony, orrather a terraced garden, supported by columns, filled withflowering plants, and tenanted by many kinds of tame birds.From the square branched several streets, all broad and

brilliantly lighted, and ascending up the eminence on eitherside. In my excursions in the town I was never allowed to goalone; Aph-Lin or his daughter was my habitual companion. Inthis community the adult Gy is seen walking with any young Anas familiarly as if there were no difference of sex.

The retail shops are not very numerous; the persons who attendon a customer are all children of various ages, and exceedinglyintelligent and courteous, but without the least touch of importunity or cringing. The shopkeeper himself might or mightnot be visible; when visible, he seemed rarely employed on anymatter connected with his professional business; and yet he hadtaken to that business from special liking for it, and quiteindependently of his general sources of fortune.

The Ana of the community are, on the whole, an indolent set of beings after the active age of childhood. Whether bytemperament or philosophy, they rank repose among the chief blessings of life. Indeed, when you take away from a humanbeing the incentives to action which are found in cupidity orambition, it seems to me no wonder that he rests quiet.

In their ordinary movements they prefer the use of their feetto that of their wings. But for their sports or (to indulge ina bold misuse of terms) their public 'promenades,' they employthe latter, also for the aerial dances I have described, aswell as for visiting their country places, which are mostlyplaced on lofty heights; and, when still young, they prefertheir wings for travel into the other regions of the Ana, tovehicular conveyances.

Those who accustom themselves to flight can fly, if lessrapidly than some birds, yet from twenty-five to thirty milesan hour, and keep up that rate for five or six hours at astretch. But the Ana generally, on reaching middle age, arenot fond of rapid movements requiring violent exercise.Perhaps for this reason, as they hold a doctrine which our ownphysicians will doubtless approve- viz., that regulartranspiration through the pores of the skin is essential to



health, they habitually use the sweating-baths to which we givethe name Turkish or Roman, succeeded by douches of perfumedwaters. They have great faith in the salubrious virtue of certain perfumes.

It is their custom also, at stated but rare periods, perhapsfour times a-year when in health, to use a bath charged withvril.*

* I once tried the effect of the vril bath. It was verysimilar in its invigorating powers to that of the baths atGastein, the virtues of which are ascribed by many physiciansto electricity; but though similar, the effect of the vril bathwas more lasting.

They consider that this fluid, sparingly used, is a greatsustainer of life; but used in excess, when in the normal stateof health, rather tends to reaction and exhausted vitality.For nearly all their diseases, however, they resort to it asthe chief assistant to nature in throwing off their complaint.

In their own way they are the most luxurious of people, but alltheir luxuries are innocent. They may be said to dwell in anatmosphere of music and fragrance. Every room has itsmechanical contrivances for melodious sounds, usually tuneddown to soft-murmured notes, which seem like sweet whispers

from invisible spirits. They are too accustomed to thesegentle sounds to find them a hindrance to conversation, nor,when alone, to reflection. But they have a notion that tobreathe an air filled with continuous melody and perfume hasnecessarily an effect at once soothing and elevating upon theformation of character and the habits of thought. Though sotemperate, and with total abstinence from other animal foodthan milk, and from all intoxicating drinks, they are delicateand dainty to an extreme in food and beverage; and in all theirsports even the old exhibit a childlike gaiety. Happiness is

the end at which they aim, not as the excitement of a moment,but as the prevailing condition of the entire existence; andregard for the happiness of each other is evinced by theexquisite amenity of their manners.

Their conformation of skull has marked differences from that of any known races in the upper world, though I cannot helpthinking it a development, in the course of countless ages of







flattering point of view,- perpetual subjects of comparisonbetween our most civilised populations and the meanersubterranean races which they considered hopelessly plunged inbarbarism, and doomed to gradual if certain extinction. Butthey both agreed in desiring to conceal from their community

all premature opening into the regions lighted by the sun; bothwere humane, and shrunk from the thought of annihilating somany millions of creatures; and the pictures I drew of ourlife, highly coloured as they were, saddened them. In vain Iboasted of our great men- poets, philosophers, orators,generals- and defied the Vril-ya to produce their equals."Alas," said Zee, "this predominance of the few over the manyis the surest and most fatal sign of a race incorrigiblysavage. See you not that the primary condition of mortalhappiness consists in the extinction of that strife andcompetition between individuals, which, no matter what forms of government they adopt, render the many subordinate to the few,destroy real liberty to the individual, whatever may be thenominal liberty of the state, and annul that calm of existence,without which, felicity, mental or bodily, cannot be attained?Our notion is, that the more we can assimilate life to theexistence which our noblest ideas can conceive to be that of spirits on the other side of the grave, why, the more weapproximate to a divine happiness here, and the more easily weglide into the conditions of being hereafter. For, surely, allwe can imagine of the life of gods, or of blessed immortals,

supposes the absence of self-made cares and contentiouspassions, such as avarice and ambition. It seems to us that itmust be a life of serene tranquility, not indeed without activeoccupations to the intellectual or spiritual powers, butoccupations, of whatsoever nature they be, congenial to theidiosyncrasies of each, not forced and repugnant- a lifegladdened by the untrammelled interchange of gentle affections,in which the moral atmosphere utterly kills hate and vengeance,and strife and rivalry. Such is the political state to whichall the tribes and families of the Vril-ya seek to attain, and

towards that goal all our theories of government are shaped.You see how utterly opposed is such a progress to that of theuncivilised nations from which you come, and which aim at asystematic perpetuity of troubles, and cares, and warringpassions aggravated more and more as their progress storms itsway onward. The most powerful of all the races in our world,beyond the pale of the Vril-ya, esteems itself the bestgoverned of all political societies, and to have reached in



that respect the extreme end at which political wisdom canarrive, so that the other nations should tend more or less tocopy it. It has established, on its broadest base, theKoom-Posh- viz., the government of the ignorant upon theprinciple of being the most numerous. It has placed the

supreme bliss in the vying with each other in all things, sothat the evil passions are never in repose- vying for power,for wealth, for eminence of some kind; and in this rivalry itis horrible to hear the vituperation, the slanders, andcalumnies which even the best and mildest among them heap oneach other without remorse or shame."

"Some years ago," said Aph-Lin, "I visited this people, andtheir misery and degradation were the more appalling becausethey were always boasting of their felicity and grandeur ascompared with the rest of their species. And there is no hopethat this people, which evidently resembles your own, canimprove, because all their notions tend to furtherdeterioration. They desire to enlarge their dominion more andmore, in direct antagonism to the truth that, beyond a verylimited range, it is impossible to secure to a community thehappiness which belongs to a well-ordered family; and the morethey mature a system by which a few individuals are heated andswollen to a size above the standard slenderness of the millions,the more they chuckle and exact, and cry out, 'See by what greatexceptions to the common littleness of our race we prove the

magnificent results of our system!'"

"In fact," resumed Zee, "if the wisdom of human life be toapproximate to the serene equality of immortals, there can be nomore direct flying off into the opposite direction than a systemwhich aims at carrying to the utmost the inequalities andturbulences of mortals. Nor do I see how, by any forms of religious belief, mortals, so acting, could fit themselves even toappreciate the joys of immortals to which they still expect to betransferred by the mere act of dying. On the contrary, minds

accustomed to place happiness in things so much the reverse of godlike, would find the happiness of gods exceedingly dull, andwould long to get back to a world in which they could quarrel witheach other."



Chapter XVI.

I have spoken so much of the Vril Staff that my reader mayexpect me to describe it. This I cannot do accurately, for I

was never allowed to handle it for fear of some terribleaccident occasioned by my ignorance of its use; and I have nodoubt that it requires much skill and practice in the exerciseof its various powers. It is hollow, and has in the handleseveral stops, keys, or springs by which its force can bealtered, modified, or directed- so that by one process itdestroys, by another it heals- by one it can rend the rock, byanother disperse the vapour- by one it affects bodies, byanother it can exercise a certain influence over minds. It isusually carried in the convenient size of a walking-staff, butit has slides by which it can be lengthened or shortened atwill. When used for special purposes, the upper part rests inthe hollow of the palm with the fore and middle fingersprotruded. I was assured, however, that its power was notequal in all, but proportioned to the amount of certain vrilproperties in the wearer in affinity, or 'rapport' with thepurposes to be effected. Some were more potent to destroy,others to heal, &c.; much also depended on the calm andsteadiness of volition in the manipulator. They assert thatthe full exercise of vril power can only be acquired by theconstitutional temperament- i.e., by hereditarily transmitted

organisation- and that a female infant of four years oldbelonging to the Vril-ya races can accomplish feats which alife spent in its practice would not enable the strongest andmost skilled mechanician, born out of the pale of the Vril-yato achieve. All these wands are not equally complicated; thoseintrusted to children are much simpler than those borne bysages of either sex, and constructed with a view to the specialobject on which the children are employed; which as I havebefore said, is among the youngest children the mostdestructive. In the wands of wives and mothers the correlative

destroying force is usually abstracted, the healing power fullycharged. I wish I could say more in detail of this singularconductor of the vril fluid, but its machinery is as exquisiteas its effects are marvellous.

I should say, however, that this people have invented certaintubes by which the vril fluid can be conducted towards theobject it is meant to destroy, throughout a distance almost



indefinite; at least I put it modestly when I say from 500 to600 miles. And their mathematical science as applied to suchpurpose is so nicely accurate, that on the report of someobserver in an air-boat, any member of the vril department canestimate unerringly the nature of intervening obstacles, the

height to which the projectile instrument should be raised, andthe extent to which it should be charged, so as to reduce toashes within a space of time too short for me to venture tospecify it, a capital twice as vast as London.

Certainly these Ana are wonderful mathematicians- wonderful forthe adaptation of the inventive faculty to practical uses.

I went with my host and his daughter Zee over the great publicmuseum, which occupies a wing in the College of Sages, and inwhich are hoarded, as curious specimens of the ignorant andblundering experiments of ancient times, many contrivances onwhich we pride ourselves as recent achievements. In onedepartment, carelessly thrown aside as obsolete lumber, aretubes for destroying life by metallic balls and an inflammablepowder, on the principle of our cannons and catapults, and evenstill more murderous than our latest improvements.

My host spoke of these with a smile of contempt, such as anartillery officer might bestow on the bows and arrows of theChinese. In another department there were models of vehicles

and vessels worked by steam, and of an air-balloon which mighthave been constructed by Montgolfier. "Such," said Zee, withan air of meditative wisdom- "such were the feeble triflingswith nature of our savage forefathers, ere they had even aglimmering perception of the properties of vril!"

This young Gy was a magnificent specimen of the muscular forceto which the females of her country attain. Her features werebeautiful, like those of all her race: never in the upper worldhave I seen a face so grand and so faultless, but her devotion

to the severer studies had given to her countenance anexpression of abstract thought which rendered it somewhat sternwhen in repose; and such a sternness became formidable whenobserved in connection with her ample shoulders and loftystature. She was tall even for a Gy, and I saw her lift up acannon as easily as I could lift a pocket-pistol. Zee inspiredme with a profound terror- a terror which increased when wecame into a department of the museum appropriated to models of



contrivances worked by the agency of vril; for here, merely bya certain play of her vril staff, she herself standing at adistance, she put into movement large and weighty substances.She seemed to endow them with intelligence, and to make themcomprehend and obey her command. She set complicated pieces of

machinery into movement, arrested the movement or continued it,until, within an incredibly short time, various kinds of rawmaterial were reproduced as symmetrical works of art, completeand perfect. Whatever effect mesmerism or electro-biologyproduces over the nerves and muscles of animated objects, thisyoung Gy produced by the motions of her slender rod over thesprings and wheels of lifeless mechanism.

When I mentioned to my companions my astonishment at thisinfluence over inanimate matter- while owning that, in ourworld, I had witnessed phenomena which showed that over certainliving organisations certain other living organisations couldestablish an influence genuine in itself, but often exaggeratedby credulity or craft- Zee, who was more interested in suchsubjects than her father, bade me stretch forth my hand, andthen, placing it beside her own, she called my attention tocertain distinctions of type and character. In the firstplace, the thumb of the Gy (and, as I afterwards noticed, of all that race, male or female) was much larger, at once longerand more massive, than is found with our species above ground.There is almost, in this, as great a difference as there is

between the thumb of a man and that of a gorilla. Secondly,the palm is proportionally thicker than ours- the texture of the skin infinitely finer and softer- its average warmth isgreater. More remarkable than all this, is a visible nerve,perceptible under the skin, which starts from the wristskirting the ball of the thumb, and branching, fork-like, atthe roots of the fore and middle fingers. "With your slightformation of thumb," said the philosophical young Gy, "and withthe absence of the nerve which you find more or less developedin the hands of our race, you can never achieve other than

imperfect and feeble power over the agency of vril; but so faras the nerve is concerned, that is not found in the hands of our earliest progenitors, nor in those of the ruder tribeswithout the pale of the Vril-ya. It has been slowly developedin the course of generations, commencing in the earlyachievements, and increasing with the continuous exercise, of the vril power; therefore, in the course of one or two thousandyears, such a nerve may possibly be engendered in those higher



beings of your race, who devote themselves to that paramountscience through which is attained command over all the subtlerforces of nature permeated by vril. But when you talk of matter as something in itself inert and motionless, yourparents or tutors surely cannot have left you so ignorant as

not to know that no form of matter is motionless and inert:every particle is constantly in motion and constantly actedupon by agencies, of which heat is the most apparent and rapid,but vril the most subtle, and, when skilfully wielded, the mostpowerful. So that, in fact, the current launched by my handand guided by my will does but render quicker and more potentthe action which is eternally at work upon every particle of matter, however inert and stubborn it may seem. If a heap of metal be not capable of originating a thought of its own, yet,through its internal susceptibility to movement, it obtains thepower to receive the thought of the intellectual agent at workon it; by which, when conveyed with a sufficient force of thevril power, it is as much compelled to obey as if it weredisplaced by a visible bodily force. It is animated for thetime being by the soul thus infused into it, so that one mayalmost say that it lives and reasons. Without this we couldnot make our automata supply the place of servants.

I was too much in awe of the thews and the learning of theyoung Gy to hazard the risk of arguing with her. I had readsomewhere in my schoolboy days that a wise man, disputing with

a Roman Emperor, suddenly drew in his horns; and when theemperor asked him whether he had nothing further to say on hisside of the question, replied, "Nay, Caesar, there is noarguing against a reasoner who commands ten legions."

Though I had a secret persuasion that, whatever the realeffects of vril upon matter, Mr. Faraday could have proved hera very shallow philosopher as to its extent or its causes, Ihad no doubt that Zee could have brained all the Fellows of theRoyal Society, one after the other, with a blow of her fist.

Every sensible man knows that it is useless to argue with anyordinary female upon matters he comprehends; but to argue witha Gy seven feet high upon the mysteries of vril,- as well arguein a desert, and with a simoon!

Amid the various departments to which the vast building of theCollege of Sages was appropriated, that which interested memost was devoted to the archaeology of the Vril-ya, and



comprised a very ancient collection of portraits. In these thepigments and groundwork employed were of so durable a naturethat even pictures said to be executed at dates as remote asthose in the earliest annals of the Chinese, retained muchfreshness of colour. In examining this collection, two things

especially struck me:- first, that the pictures said to bebetween 6000 and 7000 years old were of a much higher degree of art than any produced within the last 3000 or 4000 years; and,second, that the portraits within the former period much moreresembled our own upper world and European types of countenance. Some of them, indeed reminded me of the Italianheads which look out from the canvases of Titian- speaking of ambition or craft, of care or of grief, with furrows in whichthe passions have passed with iron ploughshare. These were thecountenances of men who had lived in struggle and conflictbefore the discovery of the latent forces of vril had changedthe character of society- men who had fought with each otherfor power or fame as we in the upper world fight.

The type of face began to evince a marked change about athousand years after the vril revolution, becoming then, witheach generation, more serene, and in that serenity moreterribly distinct from the faces of labouring and sinful men;while in proportion as the beauty and the grandeur of thecountenance itself became more fully developed, the art of thepainter became more tame and monotonous.

But the greatest curiosity in the collection was that of threeportraits belonging to the pre-historical age, and, accordingto mythical tradition, taken by the orders of a philosopher,whose origin and attributes were as much mixed up withsymbolical fable as those of an Indian Budh or a GreekPrometheus.

From this mysterious personage, at once a sage and a hero, allthe principal sections of the Vril-ya race pretend to trace a

common origin.The portraits are of the philosopher himself, of hisgrandfather, and great-grandfather. They are all at fulllength. The philosopher is attired in a long tunic which seemsto form a loose suit of scaly armour, borrowed, perhaps, fromsome fish or reptile, but the feet and hands are exposed: thedigits in both are wonderfully long, and webbed. He has little



or no perceptible throat, and a low receding forehead, not atall the ideal of a sage's. He has bright brown prominent eyes,a very wide mouth and high cheekbones, and a muddy complexion.According to tradition, this philosopher had lived to apatriarchal age, extending over many centuries, and he

remembered distinctly in middle life his grandfather assurviving, and in childhood his great-grandfather; the portraitof the first he had taken, or caused to be taken, while yetalive- that of the latter was taken from his effigies in mummy.The portrait of his grandfather had the features and aspect of the philosopher, only much more exaggerated: he was notdressed, and the colour of his body was singular; the breastand stomach yellow, the shoulders and legs of a dull bronzehue: the great-grandfather was a magnificent specimen of theBatrachian genus, a Giant Frog, 'pur et simple.'

Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, thephilosopher bequeathed to posterity in rhythmical form andsententious brevity, this is notably recorded: "Humbleyourselves, my descendants; the father of your race was a'twat' (tadpole): exalt yourselves, my descendants, for it wasthe same Divine Thought which created your father that developsitself in exalting you."

Aph-Lin told me this fable while I gazed on the threeBatrachian portraits. I said in reply: "You make a jest of my

supposed ignorance and credulity as an uneducated Tish, butthough these horrible daubs may be of great antiquity, and wereintended, perhaps, for some rude caracature, I presume thatnone of your race even in the less enlightened ages, everbelieved that the great-grandson of a Frog became a sententiousphilosopher; or that any section, I will not say of the loftyVril-ya, but of the meanest varieties of the human race, hadits origin in a Tadpole."

"Pardon me," answered Aph-Lin: "in what we call the Wrangling

or Philosophical Period of History, which was at its heightabout seven thousand years ago, there was a very distinguishednaturalist, who proved to the satisfaction of numerousdisciples such analogical and anatomical agreements instructure between an An and a Frog, as to show that out of theone must have developed the other. They had some diseases incommon; they were both subject to the same parasitical worms inthe intestines; and, strange to say, the An has, in his



structure, a swimming-bladder, no longer of any use to him, butwhich is a rudiment that clearly proves his descent from aFrog. Nor is there any argument against this theory to befound in the relative difference of size, for there are stillexistent in our world Frogs of a size and stature not inferior

to our own, and many thousand years ago they appear to havebeen still larger."

"I understand that," said I, "because Frogs this enormous are,according to our eminent geologists, who perhaps saw them indreams, said to have been distinguished inhabitants of theupper world before the Deluge; and such Frogs are exactly thecreatures likely to have flourished in the lakes and morassesof your subterranean regions. But pray, proceed."

"In the Wrangling Period of History, whatever one sage assertedanother sage was sure to contradict. In fact, it was a maximin that age, that the human reason could only be sustainedaloft by being tossed to and fro in the perpetual motion of contradiction; and therefore another sect of philosophersmaintained the doctrine that the An was not the descendant of the Frog, but that the Frog was clearly the improveddevelopment of the An. The shape of the Frog, taken generally,was much more symmetrical than that of the An; beside thebeautiful conformation of its lower limbs, its flanks andshoulders the majority of the Ana in that day were almost

deformed, and certainly ill-shaped. Again, the Frog had thepower to live alike on land and in water- a mighty privilege,partaking of a spiritual essence denied to the An, since thedisuse of his swimming-bladder clearly proves his degenerationfrom a higher development of species. Again, the earlier racesof the Ana seem to have been covered with hair, and, even to acomparatively recent date, hirsute bushes deformed the veryfaces of our ancestors, spreading wild over their cheeks andchins, as similar bushes, my poor Tish, spread wild over yours.But the object of the higher races of the Ana through countless

generations has been to erase all vestige of connection withhairy vertebrata, and they have gradually eliminated thatdebasing capillary excrement by the law of sexual selection;the Gy-ei naturally preferring youth or the beauty of smoothfaces. But the degree of the Frog in the scale of thevertebrata is shown in this, that he has no hair at all, noteven on his head. He was born to that hairless perfectionwhich the most beautiful of the Ana, despite the culture of



incalculable ages, have not yet attained. The wonderfulcomplication and delicacy of a Frog's nervous system andarterial circulation were shown by this school to be moresusceptible of enjoyment than our inferior, or at leastsimpler, physical frame allows us to be. The examination of a

Frog's hand, if I may use that expression, accounted for itskeener susceptibility to love, and to social life in general.In fact, gregarious and amatory as are the Ana, Frogs are stillmore so. In short, these two schools raged against each other;one asserting the An to be the perfected type of the Frog; theother that the Frog was the highest development of the An. Themoralists were divided in opinion with the naturalists, but thebulk of them sided with the Frog-preference school. They said,with much plausibility, that in moral conduct (viz., in theadherence to rules best adapted to the health and welfare of the individual and the community) there could be no doubt of the vast superiority of the Frog. All history showed thewholesale immorality of the human race, the complete disregard,even by the most renowned amongst them, of the laws which theyacknowledged to be essential to their own and the generalhappiness and wellbeing. But the severest critic of the Frograce could not detect in their manners a single aberration fromthe moral law tacitly recognised by themselves. And what, afterall, can be the profit of civilisation if superiority in moralconduct be not the aim for which it strives, and the test by whichits progress should be judged?

"In fine, the adherents of this theory presumed that in someremote period the Frog race had been the improved developmentof the Human; but that, from some causes which defied rationalconjecture, they had not maintained their original position inthe scale of nature; while the Ana, though of inferiororganisation, had, by dint less of their virtues than theirvices, such as ferocity and cunning, gradually acquiredascendancy, much as among the human race itself tribes utterlybarbarous have, by superiority in similar vices, utterly

destroyed or reduced into insignificance tribes originallyexcelling them in mental gifts and culture. Unhappily thesedisputes became involved with the religious notions of thatage; and as society was then administered under the governmentof the Koom-Posh, who, being the most ignorant, were of coursethe most inflammable class- the multitude took the wholequestion out of the hands of the philosophers; political chiefssaw that the Frog dispute, so taken up by the populace, could



become a most valuable instrument of their ambition; and fornot less than one thousand years war and massacre prevailed,during which period the philosophers on both sides werebutchered, and the government of Koom-Posh itself was happilybrought to an end by the ascendancy of a family that clearly

established its descent from the aboriginal tadpole, andfurnished despotic rulers to the various nations of the Ana.These despots finally disappeared, at least from ourcommunities, as the discovery of vril led to the tranquilinstitutions under which flourish all the races of theVril-ya."

"And do no wranglers or philosophers now exist to revive thedispute; or do they all recognise the origin of your race inthe tadpole?"

"Nay, such disputes," said Zee, with a lofty smile, "belong tothe Pah-bodh of the dark ages, and now only serve for theamusement of infants. When we know the elements out of whichour bodies are composed, elements in common to the humblestvegetable plants, can it signify whether the All-Wise combinedthose elements out of one form more than another, in order tocreate that in which He has placed the capacity to receive theidea of Himself, and all the varied grandeurs of intellect towhich that idea gives birth? The An in reality commenced toexist as An with the donation of that capacity, and, with that

capacity, the sense to acknowledge that, however through thecountless ages his race may improve in wisdom, it can nevercombine the elements at its command into the form of atadpole."

"You speak well, Zee," said Aph-Lin; "and it isenough for us shortlived mortals to feel a reasonableassurance that whether the origin of the An was a tadpoleor not, he is no more likely to become a tadpoleagain than the institutions of the Vril-ya are likely to

relapse into the heaving quagmire and certain strife-rotof a Koom-Posh."



Chapter XVII.

The Vril-ya, being excluded from all sight of the heavenlybodies, and having no other difference between night and day

than that which they deem it convenient to make forthemselves,- do not, of course, arrive at their divisions of time by the same process that we do; but I found it easy by theaid of my watch, which I luckily had about me, to compute theirtime with great nicety. I reserve for a future work on thescience and literature of the Vril-ya, should I live tocomplete it, all details as to the manner in which theyarrive at their rotation of time; and content myself herewith saying, that in point of duration, their year differsvery slightly from ours, but that the divisions of their yearare by no means the same. Their day, (including what we callnight) consists of twenty hours of our time, instead of twenty-four, and of course their year comprises thecorrespondent increase in the number of days by which it issummed up. They subdivide the twenty hours of their daythus- eight hours,* called the "Silent Hours," for repose;eight hours, called the "Earnest Time," for the pursuits andoccupations of life; and four hours called the "Easy Time"(with which what I may term their day closes), allotted tofestivities, sport, recreation, or family converse, accordingto their several tastes and inclinations.

* For the sake of convenience, I adopt the word hours, days,years, &c., in any general reference to subdivisions of timeamong the Vril-ya; those terms but loosely corresponding,however, with such subdivisions.

But, in truth, out of doors there is no night. They maintain,both in the streets and in the surrounding country, to thelimits of their territory, the same degree of light at allhours. Only, within doors, they lower it to a soft twilight

during the Silent Hours. They have a great horror of perfectdarkness, and their lights are never wholly extinguished. Onoccasions of festivity they continue the duration of fulllight, but equally keep note of the distinction between nightand day, by mechanical contrivances which answer the purpose of our clocks and watches. They are very fond of music; and it isby music that these chronometers strike the principal divisionof time. At every one of their hours, during their day, the



sounds coming from all the time-pieces in their publicbuildings, and caught up, as it were, by those of houses orhamlets scattered amidst the landscapes without the city, havean effect singularly sweet, and yet singularly solemn. Butduring the Silent Hours these sounds are so subdued as to be

only faintly heard by a waking ear. They have no change of seasons, and, at least on the territory of this tribe, theatmosphere seemed to me very equable, warm as that of anItalian summer, and humid rather than dry; in the forenoonusually very still, but at times invaded by strong blasts fromthe rocks that made the borders of their domain. But time isthe same to them for sowing or reaping as in the Golden Islesof the ancient poets. At the same moment you see the youngerplants in blade or bud, the older in ear or fruit. Allfruit-bearing plants, however, after fruitage, either shed orchange the colour of their leaves. But that which interestedme most in reckoning up their divisions of time was theascertainment of the average duration of life amongst them. Ifound on minute inquiry that this very considerably exceededthe term allotted to us on the upper earth. What seventy yearsare to us, one hundred years are to them. Nor is this the onlyadvantage they have over us in longevity, for as few among usattain to the age of seventy, so, on the contrary, few amongthem die before the age of one hundred; and they enjoy ageneral degree of health and vigour which makes life itself ablessing even to the last. Various causes contribute to this

result: the absence of all alcoholic stimulants; temperance infood; more especially, perhaps, a serenity of mind undisturbedby anxious occupations and eager passions. They are nottormented by our avarice or our ambition; they appear perfectlyindifferent even to the desire of fame; they are capable of great affection, but their love shows itself in a tender andcheerful complaisance, and, while forming their happiness,seems rarely, if ever, to constitute their woe. As the Gy issure only to marry where she herself fixes her choice, and ashere, not less than above ground, it is the female on whom the

happiness of home depends; so the Gy, having chosen the mateshe prefers to all others, is lenient to his faults, consultshis humours, and does her best to secure his attachment. Thedeath of a beloved one is of course with them, as with us, acause for sorrow; but not only is death with them so much morerare before that age in which it becomes a release, but when itdoes occur the survivor takes much more consolation than, I amafraid, the generality of us do, in the certainty of reunion in



another and yet happier life.

All these causes, then, concur to their healthful and enjoyablelongevity, though, no doubt, much also must be owing tohereditary organisation. According to their records, however,

in those earlier stages of their society when they lived incommunities resembling ours, agitated by fierce competition,their lives were considerably shorter, and their maladies morenumerous and grave. They themselves say that the duration of life, too, has increased, and is still on the increase, sincetheir discovery of the invigorating and medicinal properties of vril, applied for remedial purposes. They have fewprofessional and regular practitioners of medicine, and theseare chiefly Gy-ei, who, especially if widowed and childless,find great delight in the healing art, and even undertakesurgical operations in those cases required by accident, or,more rarely, by disease.

They have their diversions and entertainments, and, during theEasy Time of their day, they are wont to assemble in greatnumbers for those winged sports in the air which I have alreadydescribed. They have also public halls for music, and eventheatres, at which are performed pieces that appeared to mesomewhat to resemble the plays of the Chinese- dramas that arethrown back into distant times for their events and personages,in which all classic unities are outrageously violated, and the

hero, in once scene a child, in the next is an old man, and soforth. These plays are of very ancient composition, and theirstories cast in remote times. They appeared to me very dull,on the whole, but were relieved by startling mechanicalcontrivances, and a kind of farcical broad humour, and detachedpassages of great vigour and power expressed in language highlypoetical, but somewhat overcharged with metaphor and trope. Infine, they seemed to me very much what the plays of Shakespeareseemed to a Parisian in the time of Louis XV., or perhaps to anEnglishman in the reign of Charles II.

The audience, of which the Gy-ei constituted the chief portion,appeared to enjoy greatly the representation of these dramas,which, for so sedate and majestic a race of females, surprisedme, till I observed that all the performers were under the ageof adolescence, and conjectured truly that the mothers andsisters came to please their children and brothers.



I have said that these dramas are of great antiquity. No newplays, indeed no imaginative works sufficiently important tosurvive their immediate day, appear to have been composed forseveral generations. In fact, though there is no lack of newpublications, and they have even what may be called newspapers,

these are chiefly devoted to mechanical science, reports of newinventions, announcements respecting various details of business- in short, to practical matters. Sometimes a childwrites a little tale of adventure, or a young Gy vents heramorous hopes or fears in a poem; but these effusions are of very little merit, and are seldom read except by children andmaiden Gy-ei. The most interesting works of a purely literarycharacter are those of explorations and travels into otherregions of this nether world, which are generally written byyoung emigrants, and are read with great avidity by therelations and friends they have left behind.

I could not help expressing to Aph-Lin my surprise that acommunity in which mechanical science had made so marvellous aprogress, and in which intellectual civilisation had exhibiteditself in realising those objects for the happiness of thepeople, which the political philosophers above ground had, afterages of struggle, pretty generally agreed to considerunattainable visions, should, nevertheless, be so whollywithout a contemporaneous literature, despite the excellence towhich culture had brought a language at once so rich and

simple, vigourous and musical.

My host replied- "Do you not percieve that a literature such asyou mean would be wholly incompatible with that perfection of social or political felicity at which you do us the honour tothink we have arrived? We have at last, after centuries of struggle, settled into a form of government with which we arecontent, and in which, as we allow no differences of rank, andno honours are paid to administrators distinguishing them fromothers, there is no stimulus given to individual ambition. No

one would read works advocating theories that involved anypolitical or social change, and therefore no one writes them.If now and then an An feels himself dissatisfied with ourtranquil mode of life, he does not attack it; he goes away.Thus all that part of literature (and to judge by the ancientbooks in our public libraries, it was once a very large part),which relates to speculative theories on society is becomeutterly extinct. Again, formerly there was a vast deal written



respecting the attributes and essence of the All-Good, and thearguments for and against a future state; but now we allrecognise two facts, that there IS a Divine Being, and there ISa future state, and we all equally agree that if we wrote ourfingers to the bone, we could not throw any light upon the

nature and conditions of that future state, or quicken ourapprehensions of the attributes and essence of that DivineBeing. Thus another part of literature has become alsoextinct, happily for our race; for in the time when so much waswritten on subjects which no one could determine, people seemedto live in a perpetual state of quarrel and contention. So,too, a vast part of our ancient literature consists of historical records of wars an revolutions during the times whenthe Ana lived in large and turbulent societies, each seekingaggrandisement at the expense of the other. You see our serenemode of life now; such it has been for ages. We have no eventsto chronicle. What more of us can be said than that, 'theywere born, they were happy, they died?' Coming next to thatpart of literature which is more under the control of theimagination, such as what we call Glaubsila, or colloquially'Glaubs,' and you call poetry, the reasons for its declineamongst us are abundantly obvious.

"We find, by referring to the great masterpieces in thatdepartment of literature which we all still read with pleasure,but of which none would tolerate imitations, that they consist

in the portraiture of passions which we no longer experience-ambition, vengeance, unhallowed love, the thirst for warlikerenown, and suchlike. The old poets lived in an atmosphereimpregnated with these passions, and felt vividly what theyexpressed glowingly. No one can express such passions now, forno one can feel them, or meet with any sympathy in his readersif he did. Again, the old poetry has a main element in itsdissection of those complex mysteries of human character whichconduce to abnormal vices and crimes, or lead to signal andextraordinary virtues. But our society, having got rid of

temptations to any prominent vices and crimes, has necessarilyrendered the moral average so equal, that there are no verysalient virtues. Without its ancient food of strong passions,vast crimes, heroic excellences, poetry therefore is, if notactually starved to death, reduced to a very meagre diet.There is still the poetry of description- description of rocks,and trees, and waters, and common household life; and our youngGy-ei weave much of this insipid kind of composition into their



love verses."

"Such poetry," said I, "might surely be made very charming; andwe have critics amongst us who consider it a higher kind thanthat which depicts the crimes, or analyses the passions, of

man. At all events, poetry of the inspired kind you mention isa poetry that nowadays commands more readers than any otheramong the people I have left above ground."

"Possibly; but then I suppose the writers take great pains withthe language they employ, and devote themselves to the cultureand polish of words and rhythms of an art?"

"Certainly they do: all great poets do that. Though the giftof poetry may be inborn, the gift requires as much care to makeit available as a block of metal does to be made into one of your engines."

"And doubtless your poets have some incentive to bestow allthose pains upon such verbal prettinesses?"

"Well, I presume their instinct of song would make them sing asthe bird does; but to cultivate the song into verbal orartificial prettiness, probably does need an inducement fromwithout, and our poets find it in the love of fame- perhaps,now and then, in the want of money."

"Precisely so. But in our society we attach fame to nothingwhich man, in that moment of his duration which is called'life,' can perform. We should soon lose that equality whichconstitutes the felicitous essence of our commonwealth if weselected any individual for pre-eminent praise: pre-eminentpraise would confer pre-eminent power, and the moment it weregiven, evil passions, now dormant, would awake: other men wouldimmediately covet praise, then would arise envy, and with envyhate, and with hate calumny and persecution. Our history tells

us that most of the poets and most of the writers who, in theold time, were favoured with the greatest praise, were alsoassailed by the greatest vituperation, and even, on the whole,rendered very unhappy, partly by the attacks of jealous rivals,partly by the diseased mental constitution which an acquiredsensitiveness to praise and to blame tends to engender. As forthe stimulus of want; in the first place, no man in ourcommunity knows the goad of poverty; and, secondly, if he did,



almost every occupation would be more lucrative than writing.

"Our public libraries contain all the books of the past whichtime has preserved; those books, for the reasons above stated,are infinitely better than any can write nowadays, and they are

open to all to read without cost. We are not such fools as topay for reading inferior books, when we can read superior booksfor nothing."

"With us, novelty has an attraction; and a new book, if bad, isread when an old book, though good, is neglected."

"Novelty, to barbarous states of society struggling in despairfor something better, has no doubt an attraction, denied to us,who see nothing to gain in novelties; but after all, it isobserved by one of our great authors four thousand years ago,that 'he who studies old books will always find in themsomething new, and he who reads new books will always find inthem something old.' But to return to the question you haveraised, there being then amongst us no stimulus to painstakinglabour, whether in desire of fame or in pressure of want, suchas have the poetic temperament, no doubt vent it in song, asyou say the bird sings; but for lack of elaborate culture itfails of an audience, and, failing of an audience, dies out, of itself, amidst the ordinary avocations of life."

"But how is it that these discouragements to the cultivation of literature do not operate against that of science?"

"Your question amazes me. The motive to science is the love of truth apart from all consideration of fame, and science with ustoo is devoted almost solely to practical uses, essential toour social conversation and the comforts of our daily life. Nofame is asked by the inventor, and none is given to him; heenjoys an occupation congenial to his tastes, and needing nowear and tear of the passions. Man must have exercise for his

mind as well as body; and continuous exercise, rather thanviolent, is best for both. Our most ingenious cultivators of science are, as a general rule, the longest lived and the mostfree from disease. Painting is an amusement to many, but theart is not what it was in former times, when the great paintersin our various communities vied with each other for the prizeof a golden crown, which gave them a social rank equal to thatof the kings under whom they lived. You will thus doubtless



have observed in our archaeological department how superior inpoint of art the pictures were several thousand years ago.Perhaps it is because music is, in reality, more allied toscience than it is to poetry, that, of all the pleasurablearts, music is that which flourishes the most amongst us.

Still, even in music the absence of stimulus in praise or famehas served to prevent any great superiority of one individualover another; and we rather excel in choral music, with the aidof our vast mechanical instruments, in which we make great useof the agency of water,* than in single performers."

* This may remind the student of Nero's invention of a musicalmachine, by which water was made to perform the part of anorchestra, and on which he was employed when the conspiracyagainst him broke out.

"We have had scarcely any original composer for some ages. Ourfavorite airs are very ancient in substance, but have admittedmany complicated variations by inferior, though ingenious,musicians."

"Are there no political societies among the Ana which areanimated by those passions, subjected to those crimes, andadmitting those disparities in condition, in intellect, and inmorality, which the state of your tribe, or indeed of theVril-ya generally, has left behind in its progress to

perfection? If so, among such societies perhaps Poetry and hersister arts still continue to be honoured and to improve?"

"There are such societies in remote regions, but we do notadmit them within the pale of civilised communities; wescarcely even give them the name of Ana, and certainly not thatof Vril-ya. They are savages, living chiefly in that low stageof being, Koom-Posh, tending necessarily to its own hideousdissolution in Glek-Nas. Their wretched existence is passed inperpetual contest and perpetual change. When they do not fight

with their neighbours, they fight among themselves. They aredivided into sections, which abuse, plunder, and sometimesmurder each other, and on the most frivolous points of difference that would be unintelligible to us if we had notread history, and seen that we too have passed through the sameearly state of ignorance and barbarism. Any trifle issufficient to set them together by the ears. They pretend tobe all equals, and the more they have struggled to be so, by



removing old distinctions, and starting afresh, the moreglaring and intolerable the disparity becomes, because nothingin hereditary affections and associations is left to soften theone naked distinction between the many who have nothing and thefew who have much. Of course the many hate the few, but

without the few they could not live. The many are alwaysassailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the few; but assoon as they have done so, a new few starts out of the many,and is harder to deal with than the old few. For wheresocieties are large, and competition to have something is thepredominant fever, there must be always many losers and fewgainers. In short, they are savages groping their way in thedark towards some gleam of light, and would demand ourcommiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages, theydid not provoke their own destruction by their arrogance andcruelty. Can you imagine that creatures of this kind, armedonly with such miserable weapons as you may see in our museumof antiquities, clumsy iron tubes charged with saltpetre, havemore than once threatened with destruction a tribe of theVril-ya, which dwells nearest to them, because they say theyhave thirty millions of population- and that tribe may havefifty thousand- if the latter do not accept their notions of Soc-Sec (money getting) on some trading principles which theyhave the impudence to call 'a law of civilisation'?"

"But thirty millions of population are formidable odds against

fifty thousand!"

My host stared at me astonished. "Stranger," said he, "youcould not have heard me say that this threatened tribe belongsto the Vril-ya; and it only waits for these savages to declarewar, in order to commission some half-a-dozen small children tosweep away their whole population."

At these words I felt a thrill of horror, recognising much moreaffinity with "the savages" than I did with the Vril-ya, and

remembering all I had said in praise of the glorious Americaninstitutions, which Aph-Lin stigmatised as Koom-Posh.Recovering my self-possession, I asked if there were modes of transit by which I could safely visit this temerarious andremote people.

"You can travel with safety, by vril agency, either along theground or amid the air, throughout all the range of the



communities with which we are allied and akin; but I cannotvouch for your safety in barbarous nations governed bydifferent laws from ours; nations, indeed, so benighted, thatthere are among them large numbers who actually live bystealing from each other, and one could not with safety in the

Silent Hours even leave the doors of one's own house open."

Here our conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Taee,who came to inform us that he, having been deputed to discoverand destroy the enormous reptile which I had seen on my firstarrival, had been on the watch for it ever since his visit tome, and had began to suspect that my eyes had deceived me, orthat the creature had made its way through the cavities withinthe rocks to the wild regions in which dwelt its kindred race,-when it gave evidences of its whereabouts by a greatdevastation of the herbage bordering one of the lakes. "And,"said Taee, "I feel sure that within that lake it is now hiding.So," (turning to me) "I thought it might amuse you to accompanyme to see the way we destroy such unpleasant visitors." As Ilooked at the face of the young child, and called to mind theenormous size of the creature he proposed to exterminate, Ifelt myself shudder with fear for him, and perhaps fear formyself, if I accompanied him in such a chase. But my curiosityto witness the destructive effects of the boasted vril, and myunwillingness to lower myself in the eyes of an infant bybetraying apprehensions of personal safety, prevailed over my

first impulse. Accordingly, I thanked Taee for his courteousconsideration for my amusement, and professed my willingness toset out with him on so diverting an enterprise.

Chapter XVIII.

As Taee and myself, on quitting the town, and leaving to theleft the main road which led to it, struck into the fields, the

strange and solemn beauty of the landscape, lighted up, bynumberless lamps, to the verge of the horizon, fascinated myeyes, and rendered me for some time an inattentive listener tothe talk of my companion.

Along our way various operations of agriculture were beingcarried on by machinery, the forms of which were new to me, andfor the most part very graceful; for among these people art



being so cultivated for the sake of mere utility, exhibitsitself in adorning or refining the shapes of useful objects.Precious metals and gems are so profuse among them, that theyare lavished on things devoted to purposes the mostcommonplace; and their love of utility leads them to beautify

its tools, and quickens their imagination in a way unknown tothemselves.

In all service, whether in or out of doors, they make great useof automaton figures, which are so ingenious, and so pliant tothe operations of vril, that they actually seem gifted withreason. It was scarcely possible to distinguish the figures Ibeheld, apparently guiding or superintending the rapidmovements of vast engines, from human forms endowed withthought.

By degrees, as we continued to walk on, my attention becameroused by the lively and acute remarks of my companion. Theintelligence of the children among this race is marvellouslyprecocious, perhaps from the habit of having intrusted to them,at so early an age, the toils and responsibilities of middleage. Indeed, in conversing with Taee, I felt as if talkingwith some superior and observant man of my own years. I askedhim if he could form any estimate of the number of communitiesinto which the race of the Vril-ya is subdivided.

"Not exactly," he said, "because they multiply, of course,every year as the surplus of each community is drafted off.But I heard my father say that, according to the lastreport,there were a million and a half of communities speakingour language, and adopting our institutions and forms of lifeand government; but, I believe, with some differences, aboutwhich you had better ask Zee. She knows more than most of theAna do. An An cares less for things that do not concern himthan a Gy does; the Gy-ei are inquisitive creatures."

"Does each community restrict itself to the same number of families or amount of population that you do?"

"No; some have much smaller populations, some have larger-varying according to the extent of the country theyappropriate, or to the degree of excellence to which they havebrought their machinery. Each community sets its own limitaccording to circumstances, taking care always that there shall



never arise any class of poor by the pressure of populationupon the productive powers of the domain; and that no stateshall be too large for a government resembling that of a singlewell-ordered family. I imagine that no vril community exceedsthirty-thousand households. But, as a general rule, the

smaller the community, provided there be hands enough to do justice to the capacities of the territory it occupies, thericher each individual is, and the larger the sum contributedto the general treasury,- above all, the happier and the moretranquil is the whole political body, and the more perfect theproducts of its industry. The state which all tribes of theVril-ya acknowledge to be the highest in civilisation, andwhich has brought the vril force to its fullest development, isperhaps the smallest. It limits itself to four thousandfamilies; but every inch of its territory is cultivated to theutmost perfection of garden ground; its machinery excels thatof every other tribe, and there is no product of its industryin any department which is not sought for, at extraordinaryprices, by each community of our race. All our tribes makethis state their model, considering that we should reach thehighest state of civilisation allowed to mortals if we couldunite the greatest degree of happiness with the highest degreeof intellectual achievement; and it is clear that the smallerthe society the less difficult that will be. Ours is too largefor it."

This reply set me thinking. I reminded myself of that littlestate of Athens, with only twenty thousand free citizens, andwhich to this day our mightiest nations regard as the supremeguide and model in all departments of intellect. But thenAthens permitted fierce rivalry and perpetual change, and wascertainly not happy. Rousing myself from the reverie intowhich these reflections had plunged me, I brought back our talkto the subjects connected with emigration.

"But," said I, "when, I suppose yearly, a certain number among

you agree to quit home and found a new community elsewhere,they must necessarily be very few, and scarcely sufficient,even with the help of the machines they take with them, toclear the ground, and build towns, and form a civilised statewith the comforts and luxuries in which they had been reared."

"You mistake. All the tribes of the Vril-ya are in constantcommunication with each other, and settle amongst themselves



each year what proportion of one community will unite with theemigrants of another, so as to form a state of sufficient size;and the place for emigration is agreed upon at least a yearbefore, and pioneers sent from each state to level rocks, andembank waters, and construct houses; so that when the emigrants

at last go, they find a city already made, and a country aroundit at least partially cleared. Our hardy life as children makeus take cheerfully to travel and adventure. I mean to emigratemyself when of age."

"Do the emigrants always select places hitherto uninhabited andbarren?"

"As yet generally, because it is our rule never to destroyexcept when necessary to our well-being. Of course, we cannotsettle in lands already occupied by the Vril-ya; and if we takethe cultivated lands of the other races of Ana, we must utterlydestroy the previous inhabitants. Sometimes, as it is, we takewaste spots, and find that a troublesome, quarrelsome race of Ana, especially if under the administration of Koom-Posh orGlek-Nas, resents our vicinity, and picks a quarrel with us;then, of course, as menacing our welfare, we destroy it: thereis no coming to terms of peace with a race so idiotic that itis always changing the form of government which represents it.Koom-Posh," said the child, emphatically, "is bad enough, stillit has brains, though at the back of its head, and is not

without a heart; but in Glek-Nas the brain and heart of thecreatures disappear, and they become all jaws, claws, andbelly."

"You express yourself strongly. Allow me to inform you that Imyself, and I am proud to say it, am the citizen of a Koom-Posh."

"I no longer," answered Taee, "wonder to see you here so farfrom your home. What was the condition of your nativecommunity before it became a Koom-Posh?"

"A settlement of emigrants- like those settlements which yourtribe sends forth- but so far unlike your settlements, that itwas dependent on the state from which it came. It shook off that yoke, and, crowned with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh."

"Eternal glory! How long has the Koom-Posh lasted?"



"About 100 years."

"The length of an An's life- a very young community. In muchless than another 100 years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas."

"Nay, the oldest states in the world I come from, have suchfaith in its duration, that they are all gradually shapingtheir institutions so as to melt into ours, and their mostthoughtful politicians say that, whether they like it or not,the inevitable tendency of these old states is towardsKoom-Posh-erie."

"The old states?"

"Yes, the old states."

"With populations very small in proportion to the area of productive land?"

"On the contrary, with populations very large in proportion tothat area."

"I see! old states indeed!- so old as to become drivelling if they don't pack off that surplus population as we do ours- veryold states!- very, very old! Pray, Tish, do you think it wisefor very old men to try to turn head-over-heels as very young

children do? And if you ask them why they attempted suchantics, should you not laugh if they answered that by imitatingvery young children they could become very young childrenthemselves? Ancient history abounds with instances of this sorta great many thousand years ago- and in every instance a veryold state that played at Koom-Posh soon tumbled into Glek-Nas.Then, in horror of its own self, it cried out for a master, asan old man in his dotage cries out for a nurse; and after asuccession of masters or nurses, more or less long, that veryold state died out of history. A very old state attempting

Koom-Posh-erie is like a very old man who pulls down the houseto which he has been accustomed, but he has so exhausted hisvigour in pulling down, that all he can do in the way of rebuilding is to run up a crazy hut, in which himself and hissuccessors whine out, 'How the wind blows! How the wallsshake!'"

"My dear Taee, I make all excuse for your unenlightened



prejudices, which every schoolboy educated in a Koom-Posh couldeasily controvert, though he might not be so precociouslylearned in ancient history as you appear to be."

"I learned! not a bit of it. But would a schoolboy, educated

in your Koom-Posh, ask his great-great-grandfather orgreat-great-grandmother to stand on his or her head with thefeet uppermost? And if the poor old folks hesitated- say, 'Whatdo you fear?- see how I do it!'"

"Taee, I disdain to argue with a child of your age. I repeat,I make allowances for your want of that culture which aKoom-Posh alone can bestow."

"I, in my turn," answered Taee, with an air of the suave butlofty good breeding which characterises his race, "not onlymake allowances for you as not educated among the Vril-ya, butI entreat you to vouchsafe me your pardon for the insufficientrespect to the habits and opinions of so amiable a Tish!"

I ought before to have observed that I was commonly called Tishby my host and his family, as being a polite and indeed a petname, literally signifying a small barbarian; the childrenapply it endearingly to the tame species of Frog which theykeep in their gardens.

We had now reached the banks of a lake, and Taee here paused topoint out to me the ravages made in fields skirting it. "Theenemy certainly lies within these waters," said Taee. "Observewhat shoals of fish are crowded together at the margin. Eventhe great fishes with the small ones, who are their habitualprey and who generally shun them, all forget their instincts inthe presence of a common destroyer. This reptile certainlymust belong to the class of Krek-a, which are more devouringthan any other, and are said to be among the few survivingspecies of the world's dreadest inhabitants before the Ana were

created. The appetite of a Krek is insatiable- it feeds alikeupon vegetable and animal life; but for the swift-footedcreatures of the elk species it is too slow in its movements.Its favourite dainty is an An when it can catch him unawares;and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever it enterstheir dominion. I have heard that when our forefathers firstcleared this country, these monsters, and others like them,abounded, and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race



were devoured. It was impossible to exterminate them whollytill that discovery which constitutes the power and sustainsthe civilisation of our race. But after the uses of vrilbecame familiar to us, all creatures inimical to us were soonannihilated. Still, once a-year or so, one of these enormous

creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districtsbeyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy whowas bathing in this very lake. Had she been on land and armedwith her staff, it would not have dared even to show itself;for, like all savage creatures, the reptile has a marvellousinstinct, which warns it against the bearer of the vril wand.How they teach their young to avoid him, though seen for thefirst time, is one of those mysteries which you may ask Zee toexplain, for I cannot.*

* The reptile in this instinct does but resemble our wild birdsand animals, which will not come in reach of a man armed witha gun. When the electric wires were first put up, partridgesstruck against them in their flight, and fell down wounded. Noyounger generations of partridges meet with a similar accident.

So long as I stand here, the monster will not stir from itslurking-place; but we must now decoy it forth."

"Will that not be difficult?"

"Not at all. Seat yourself yonder on that crag (about onehundred yards from the bank), while I retire to a distance. Ina short time the reptile will catch sight or scent of you, andperceiving that you are no vril-bearer, will come forth todevour you. As soon as it is fairly out of the water, itbecomes my prey."

"Do you mean to tell me that I am to be the decoy to thathorrible monster which could engulf me within its jaws in asecond! I beg to decline."

The child laughed. "Fear nothing," said he; "only sit still."

Instead of obeying the command, I made a bound, and was aboutto take fairly to my heels, when Taee touched me slightly onthe shoulder, and, fixing his eyes steadily on mine, I wasrooted to the spot. All power of volition left me. Submissiveto the infant's gesture, I followed him to the crag he had



indicated, and seated myself there in silence. Most readershave seen something of the effects of electro-biology, whethergenuine or spurious. No professor of that doubtful craft hadever been able to influence a thought or a movement of mine, butI was a mere machine at the will of this terrible child.

Meanwhile he expanded his wings, soared aloft, and alightedamidst a copse at the brow of a hill at some distance.

I was alone; and turning my eyes with an indescribablesensation of horror towards the lake, I kept them fixed on itswater, spell-bound. It might be ten or fifteen minutes, to meit seemed ages, before the still surface, gleaming under thelamplight, began to be agitated towards the centre. At thesame time the shoals of fish near the margin evinced theirsense of the enemy's approach by splash and leap and bubblingcircle. I could detect their hurried flight hither andthither, some even casting themselves ashore. A long, dark,undulous furrow came moving along the waters, nearer andnearer, till the vast head of the reptile emerged- its jawsbristling with fangs, and its dull eyes fixing themselveshungrily on the spot where I sat motionless. And now its forefeet were on the strand- now its enormous breast, scaled oneither side as in armour, in the centre showing its corrugatedskin of a dull venomous yellow; and now its whole length was onthe land, a hundred feet or more from the jaw to the tail.Another stride of those ghastly feet would have brought it to

the spot where I sat. There was but a moment between me andthis grim form of death, when what seemed a flash of lightningshot through the air, smote, and, for a space of time brieferthan that in which a man can draw his breath, enveloped themonster; and then, as the flash vanished, there lay before me ablackened, charred, smouldering mass, a something gigantic, butof which even the outlines of form were burned away, andrapidly crumbling into dust and ashes. I remained stillseated, still speechless, ice-cold with a new sensation of dread; what had been horror was now awe.

I felt the child's hand on my head- fear left me- the spell wasbroken- I rose up. "You see with what ease the Vril-ya destroytheir enemies," said Taee; and then, moving towards the bank,he contemplated the smouldering relics of the monster, and saidquietly, "I have destroyed larger creatures, but none with somuch pleasure. Yes, it IS a Krek; what suffering it must haveinflicted while it lived!" Then he took up the poor fishes that



had flung themselves ashore, and restored them mercifully totheir native element.

Chapter XIX.

As we walked back to the town, Taee took a new and circuitousway, in order to show me what, to use a familiar term, I willcall the 'Station,' from which emigrants or travellers to othercommunities commence their journeys. I had, on a formeroccasion, expressed a wish to see their vehicles. These Ifound to be of two kinds, one for land journeys, one for aerialvoyages: the former were of all sizes and forms, some notlarger than an ordinary carriage, some movable houses of onestory and containing several rooms, furnished according to theideas of comfort or luxury which are entertained by theVril-ya. The aerial vehicles were of light substances, not theleast resembling our balloons, but rather our boats andpleasure-vessels, with helm and rudder, with large wings orpaddles, and a central machine worked by vril. All thevehicles both for land or air were indeed worked by that potentand mysterious agency.

I saw a convoy set out on its journey, but it had fewpassengers, containing chiefly articles of merchandise, and was

bound to a neighbouring community; for among all the tribes of the Vril-ya there is considerable commercial interchange. Imay here observe, that their money currency does not consist of the precious metals, which are too common among them for thatpurpose. The smaller coins in ordinary use are manufacturedfrom a peculiar fossil shell, the comparatively scarce remnantof some very early deluge, or other convulsion of nature, bywhich a species has become extinct. It is minute, and flat asan oyster, and takes a jewel-like polish. This coinagecirculates among all the tribes of the Vril-ya. Their larger

transactions are carried on much like ours, by bills of exchange, and thin metallic plates which answer the purpose of our bank-notes.

Let me take this occasion of adding that the taxation among thetribe I became acquainted with was very considerable, comparedwith the amount of population. But I never heard that any onegrumbled at it, for it was devoted to purposes of universal



utility, and indeed necessary to the civilisation of the tribe.The cost of lighting so large a range of country, of providingfor emigration, of maintaining the public buildings at whichthe various operations of national intellect were carried on,from the first education of an infant to the departments in

which the College of Sages were perpetually trying newexperiments in mechanical science; all these involved thenecessity for considerable state funds. To these I must add anitem that struck me as very singular. I have said that all thehuman labour required by the state is carried on by children upto the marriageable age. For this labour the state pays, andat a rate immeasurably higher than our own remuneration tolabour even in the United States. According to their theory,every child, male or female, on attaining the marriageable age,and there terminating the period of labour, should haveacquired enough for an independent competence during life. As,no matter what the disparity of fortune in the parents, all thechildren must equally serve, so all are equally paid accordingto their several ages or the nature of their work. Where theparents or friends choose to retain a child in their ownservice, they must pay into the public fund in the same ratioas the state pays to the children it employs; and this sum ishanded over to the child when the period of service expires.This practice serves, no doubt, to render the notion of socialequality familiar and agreeable; and if it may be said that allthe children form a democracy, no less truly it may be said

that all the adults form an aristocracy. The exquisitepoliteness and refinement of manners among the Vril-ya, thegenerosity of their sentiments, the absolute leisure they enjoyfor following out their own private pursuits, the amenities of their domestic intercourse, in which they seem as members of one noble order that can have no distrust of each other's wordor deed, all combine to make the Vril-ya the most perfectnobility which a political disciple of Plato or Sidney couldconceive for the ideal of an aristocratic republic.

Chapter XX.

From the date of the expedition with Taee which I have justnarrated, the child paid me frequent visits. He had taken aliking to me, which I cordially returned. Indeed, as he wasnot yet twelve years old, and had not commenced the course of





abnormal strength which is given by excessive fright, I curbedtheir gyrations and brought them near to the body, it seemed asif I lost the sustaining power stored in them and theconnecting bladders, as when the air is let out of a balloon,and found myself precipitated again to the earth; saved,

indeed, by some spasmodic flutterings, from being dashed topieces, but not saved from the bruises and the stun of a heavyfall. I would, however, have persevered in my attempts, butfor the advice or the commands of the scientific Zee, who hadbenevolently accompanied my flutterings, and, indeed, on thelast occasion, flying just under me, received my form as itfell on her own expanded wings, and preserved me from breakingmy head on the roof of the pyramid from which we had ascended.

"I see," she said, "that your trials are in vain, not from thefault of the wings and their appurtenances, nor from anyimperfectness and malformation of your own corpuscular system,but from irremediable, because organic, defect in your power of volition. Learn that the connection between the will and theagencies of that fluid which has been subjected to the controlof the Vril-ya was never established by the first discoverers,never achieved by a single generation; it has gone onincreasing, like other properties of race, in proportion as ithas been uniformly transmitted from parent to child, so that,at last, it has become an instinct; and an infant An of ourrace wills to fly as intuitively and unconsciously as he wills

to walk. He thus plies his invented or artificial wings withas much safety as a bird plies those with which it is born. Idid not think sufficiently of this when I allowed you to try anexperiment which allured me, for I have longed to have in you acompanion. I shall abandon the experiment now. Your life isbecoming dear to me." Herewith the Gy's voice and facesoftened, and I felt more seriously alarmed than I had been inmy previous flights.

Now that I am on the subject of wings, I ought not to omit

mention of a custom among the Gy-ei which seems to me verypretty and tender in the sentiment it implies. A Gy wearswings habitually when yet a virgin- she joins the Ana in theiraerial sports- she adventures alone and afar into the wilderregions of the sunless world: in the boldness and height of hersoarings, not less than in the grace of her movements, sheexcels the opposite sex. But, from the day of her marriage shewears wings no more, she suspends them with her own willing



hand over the nuptial couch, never to be resumed unless themarriage tie be severed by divorce or death.

Now when Zee's voice and eyes thus softened- and at thatsoftening I prophetically recoiled and shuddered- Taee, who had

accompanied us in our flights, but who, child-like, had beenmuch more amused with my awkwardness, than sympathising in myfears or aware of my danger, hovered over us, poised amidstspread wings, and hearing the endearing words of the young Gy,laughed aloud. Said he, "If the Tish cannot learn the use of wings, you may still be his companion, Zee, for you can suspendyour own."

Chapter XXI.

I had for some time observed in my host's highly informed andpowerfully proportioned daughter that kindly and protectivesentiment which, whether above the earth or below it, anall-wise Providence has bestowed upon the feminine division of the human race. But until very lately I had ascribed it tothat affection for 'pets' which a human female at every ageshares with a human child. I now became painfully aware thatthe feeling with which Zee deigned to regard me was differentfrom that which I had inspired in Taee. But this conviction

gave me none of that complacent gratification which the vanityof man ordinarily conceives from a flattering appreciation of his personal merits on the part of the fair sex; on thecontrary, it inspired me with fear. Yet of all the Gy-ei inthe community, if Zee were perhaps the wisest and thestrongest, she was, by common repute, the gentlest, and she wascertainly the most popularly beloved. The desire to aid, tosuccour, to protect, to comfort, to bless, seemed to pervadeher whole being. Though the complicated miseries thatoriginate in penury and guilt are unknown to the social system

of the Vril-ya, still, no sage had yet discovered in vril anagency which could banish sorrow from life; and whereveramongst her people sorrow found its way, there Zee followed inthe mission of comforter. Did some sister Gy fail to securethe love she sighed for? Zee sought her out, and brought allthe resources of her lore, and all the consolations of hersympathy, to bear upon a grief that so needs the solace of aconfidant. In the rare cases, when grave illness seized upon



childhood or youth, and the cases, less rare, when, in thehardy and adventurous probation of infants, some accident,attended with pain and injury occurred, Zee forsook her studiesand her sports, and became the healer and nurse. Her favouriteflights were towards the extreme boundaries of the domain

where children were stationed on guard against outbreaks of warring forces in nature, or the invasions of devouring animals,so that she might warn them of any peril which her knowledgedetected or foresaw, or be at hand if any harm had befallen.Nay, even in the exercise of her scientific acquirements therewas a concurrent benevolence of purpose and will. Did she learnany novelty in invention that would be useful to thepractitioner of some special art or craft? she hastened tocommunicate and explain it. Was some veteran sage of theCollege perplexed and wearied with the toil of an abstrusestudy? she would patiently devote herself to his aid, work outdetails for him, sustain his spirits with her hopeful smile,quicken his wit with her luminous suggestion, be to him, as itwere, his own good genius made visible as the strengthener andinspirer. The same tenderness she exhibited to the inferiorcreatures. I have often known her bring home some sick andwounded animal, and tend and cherish it as a mother would tendand cherish her stricken child. Many a time when I sat in thebalcony, or hanging garden, on which my window opened, I havewatched her rising in the air on her radiant wings, and in a fewmoments groups of infants below, catching sight of her, would

soar upward with joyous sounds of greeting; clustering andsporting around her, so that she seemed a very centre of innocent delight. When I have walked with her amidst the rocksand valleys without the city, the elk-deer would scent or seeher from afar, come bounding up, eager for the caress of herhand, or follow her footsteps, till dismissed by some musicalwhisper that the creature had learned to comprehend. It is thefashion among the virgin Gy-ei to wear on their foreheads acirclet, or coronet, with gems resembling opals, arranged infour points or rays like stars. These are lustreless in

ordinary use, but if touched by the vril wand they take a clearlambent flame, which illuminates, yet not burns. This serves asan ornament in their festivities, and as a lamp, if, intheir wanderings beyond their artificial lights, they haveto traverse the dark. There are times, when I have seen Zee'sthoughtful majesty of face lighted up by this crowning halo,that I could scarcely believe her to be a creature of mortalbirth, and bent my head before her as the vision of a being among



the celestial orders. But never once did my heart feel for thislofty type of the noblest womanhood a sentiment of human love.Is it that, among the race I belong to, man's pride so farinfluences his passions that woman loses to him her special charmof woman if he feels her to be in all things eminently superior

to himself? But by what strange infatuation could this peerlessdaughter of a race which, in the supremacy of its powers and thefelicity of its conditions, ranked all other races in the categoryof barbarians, have deigned to honour me with her preference? Inpersonal qualifications, though I passed for good-looking amongstthe people I came from, the handsomest of my countrymen mighthave seemed insignificant and homely beside the grand and serenetype of beauty which characterised the aspect of the Vril-ya.

That novelty, the very difference between myself and those towhom Zee was accustomed, might serve to bias her fancy wasprobable enough, and as the reader will see later, such a causemight suffice to account for the predilection with which I wasdistinguished by a young Gy scarcely out of her childhood, andvery inferior in all respects to Zee. But whoever willconsider those tender characteristics which I have justascribed to the daughter of Aph-Lin, may readily conceive thatthe main cause of my attraction to her was in her instinctivedesire to cherish, to comfort, to protect, and, in protecting,to sustain and to exalt. Thus, when I look back, I account forthe only weakness unworthy of her lofty nature, which bowed the

daughter of the Vril-ya to a woman's affection for one soinferior to herself as was her father's guest. But be thecause what it may, the consciousness that I had inspired suchaffection thrilled me with awe- a moral awe of her veryimperfections, of her mysterious powers, of the inseparabledistinctions between her race and my own; and with that awe, Imust confess to my shame, there combined the more material andignoble dread of the perils to which her preference wouldexpose me.

Under these anxious circumstances, fortunately, my conscienceand sense of honour were free from reproach. It became clearlymy duty, if Zee's preference continued manifest, to intimate itto my host, with, of course, all the delicacy which is ever tobe preserved by a well-bred man in confiding to another anydegree of favour by which one of the fair sex may condescend todistinguish him. Thus, at all events, I should be freed fromresponsibility or suspicion of voluntary participation in the



sentiments of Zee; and the superior wisdom of my host mightprobably suggest some sage extrication from my perilousdilemma. In this resolve I obeyed the ordinary instinct of civilised and moral man, who, erring though he be, stillgenerally prefers the right course in those cases where it is

obviously against his inclinations, his interests, and hissafety to elect the wrong one.

Chapter XXII.

As the reader has seen, Aph-Lin had not favoured my general andunrestricted intercourse with his countrywomen. Though relyingon my promise to abstain from giving any information as to theworld I had left, and still more on the promise of those towhom had been put the same request, not to question me, whichZee had exacted from Taee, yet he did not feel sure that, if Iwere allowed to mix with the strangers whose curiosity thesight of me had aroused, I could sufficiently guard myself against their inquiries. When I went out, therefore, it wasnever alone; I was always accompanied either by one of myhost's family, or my child-friend Taee. Bra, Aph-Lin's wife,seldom stirred beyond the gardens which surrounded the house,and was fond of reading the ancient literature, which containedsomething of romance and adventure not to be found in the

writings of recent ages, and presented pictures of a lifeunfamiliar to her experience and interesting to herimagination; pictures, indeed, of a life more resembling thatwhich we lead every day above ground, coloured by our sorrows,sins, passions, and much to her what the tales of the Genii orthe Arabian Nights are to us. But her love of reading did notprevent Bra from the discharge of her duties as mistress of thelargest household in the city. She went daily the round of thechambers, and saw that the automata and other mechanicalcontrivances were in order, that the numerous children employed

by Aph-Lin, whether in his private or public capacity, werecarefully tended. Bra also inspected the accounts of the wholeestate, and it was her great delight to assist her husband inthe business connected with his office as chief administratorof the Lighting Department, so that her avocations necessarilykept her much within doors. The two sons were both completingtheir education at the College of Sages; and the elder, who hada strong passion for mechanics, and especially for works



connected with the machinery of timepieces and automata, haddecided on devoting himself to these pursuits, and was nowoccupied in constructing a shop or warehouse, at which hisinventions could be exhibited and sold. The younger sonpreferred farming and rural occupations; and when not attending

the College, at which he chiefly studied the theories of agriculture, was much absorbed by his practical application of that science to his father's lands. It will be seen by thishow completely equality of ranks is established among thispeople- a shopkeeper being of exactly the same grade inestimation as the large landed proprietor. Aph-Lin was thewealthiest member of the community, and his eldest sonpreferred keeping a shop to any other avocation; nor was thischoice thought to show any want of elevated notions on his part.

This young man had been much interested in examining my watch,the works of which were new to him, and was greatly pleasedwhen I made him a present of it. Shortly after, he returnedthe gift with interest, by a watch of his own construction,marking both the time as in my watch and the time as kept amongthe Vril-ya. I have that watch still, and it has been muchadmired by many among the most eminent watchmakers of Londonand Paris. It is of gold, with diamond hands and figures, andit plays a favorite tune among the Vril-ya in striking thehours: it only requires to be wound up once in ten months, andhas never gone wrong since I had it. These young brothers

being thus occupied, my usual companions in that family, when Iwent abroad, were my host or his daughter. Now, agreeably withthe honourable conclusions I had come to, I began to excusemyself from Zee's invitations to go out alone with her, andseized an occasion when that learned Gy was delivering alecture at the College of Sages to ask Aph-Lin to show me hiscountry-seat. As this was at some little distance, and asAph-Lin was not fond of walking, while I had discreetlyrelinquished all attempts at flying, we proceeded to ourdestination in one of the aerial boats belonging to my host. A

child of eight years old, in his employ, was our conductor. Myhost and myself reclined on cushions, and I found the movementvery easy and luxurious.

"Aph-Lin," said I, "you will not, I trust, be displeased withme, if I ask your permission to travel for a short time, andvisit other tribes or communities of your illustrious race. Ihave also a strong desire to see those nations which do not



adopt your institutions, and which you consider as savages. Itwould interest me greatly to notice what are the distinctionsbetween them and the races whom we consider civilised in theworld I have left."

"It is utterly impossible that you should go hence alone," saidAph-Lin. "Even among the Vril-ya you would be exposed to greatdangers. Certain peculiarities of formation and colour, andthe extraordinary phenomenon of hirsute bushes upon your cheeksand chin, denoting in you a species of An distinct alike fromour own race and any known race of barbarians yet extant, wouldattract, of course, the special attention of the College of Sages in whatever community of Vril-ya you visited, and itwould depend upon the individual temper of some individual sagewhether you would be received, as you have been here,hospitably, or whether you would not be at once dissected forscientific purposes. Know that when the Tur first took you tohis house, and while you were there put to sleep by Taee inorder to recover from your previous pain or fatigue, the sagessummoned by the Tur were divided in opinion whether you were aharmless or an obnoxious animal. During your unconscious stateyour teeth were examined, and they clearly showed that you werenot only graminivorous but carnivorous. Carnivorous animals of your size are always destroyed, as being of savage anddangerous nature. Our teeth, as you have doubtless observed,*are not those of the creatures who devour flesh."

* I never had observed it; and, if I had, am not physiologistenough to have distinguished the difference.

"It is, indeed, maintained by Zee and other philosophers, thatas, in remote ages, the Ana did prey upon living beings of thebrute species, their teeth must have been fitted for thatpurpose. But, even if so, they have been modified byhereditary transmission, and suited to the food on which we nowexist; nor are even the barbarians, who adopt the turbulent and

ferocious institutions of Glek-Nas, devourers of flesh likebeasts of prey.

"In the course of this dispute it was proposed to dissect you;but Taee begged you off, and the Tur being, by office, averseto all novel experiments at variance with our custom of sparinglife, except where it is clearly proved to be for the good of the community to take it, sent to me, whose business it is, as



the richest man of the state, to afford hospitality tostrangers from a distance. It was at my option to decidewhether or not you were a stranger whom I could safely admit.Had I declined to receive you, you would have been handed overto the College of Sages, and what might there have befallen you

I do not like to conjecture. Apart from this danger, you mightchance to encounter some child of four years old, just put inpossession of his vril staff; and who, in alarm at your strangeappearance, and in the impulse of the moment, might reduce youto a cinder. Taee himself was about to do so when he first sawyou, had his father not checked his hand. Therefore I say youcannot travel alone, but with Zee you would be safe; and I haveno doubt that she would accompany you on a tour round theneighbouring communities of Vril-ya (to the savage states,No!): I will ask her."

Now, as my main object in proposing to travel was to escapefrom Zee, I hastily exclaimed, "Nay, pray do not! I relinquishmy design. You have said enough as to its dangers to deter mefrom it; and I can scarcely think it right that a young Gy of the personal attractions of your lovely daughter should travelinto other regions without a better protector than a Tish of myinsignificant strength and stature."

Aph-Lin emitted the soft sibilant sound which is the nearestapproach to laughter that a full-grown An permits to himself,

ere he replied: "Pardon my discourteous but momentaryindulgence of mirth at any observation seriously made by myguest. I could not but be amused at the idea of Zee, who is sofond of protecting others that children call her 'THEGUARDIAN,' needing a protector herself against any dangersarising from the audacious admiration of males. Know that ourGy-ei, while unmarried, are accustomed to travel alone amongother tribes, to see if they find there some An who may pleasethem more than the Ana they find at home. Zee has already madethree such journeys, but hitherto her heart has been untouched."

Here the opportunity which I sought was afforded to me, and Isaid, looking down, and with faltering voice, "Will you, mykind host, promise to pardon me, if what I am about to saygives offence?"

"Say only the truth, and I cannot be offended; or, could I beso, it would not be for me, but for you to pardon."



"Well, then, assist me to quit you, and, much as I should havelike to witness more of the wonders, and enjoy more of thefelicity, which belong to your people, let me return to myown."

"I fear there are reasons why I cannot do that; at all events,not without permission of the Tur, and he, probably, would notgrant it. You are not destitute of intelligence; you may(though I do not think so) have concealed the degree of destructive powers possessed by your people; you might, inshort, bring upon us some danger; and if the Tur entertainsthat idea, it would clearly be his duty, either to put an endto you, or enclose you in a cage for the rest of yourexistence. But why should you wish to leave a state of societywhich you so politely allow to be more felicitous than yourown?"

"Oh, Aph-Lin! My answer is plain. Lest in naught, andunwittingly, I should betray your hospitality; lest, in thecaprice of will which in our world is proverbial among theother sex, and from which even a Gy is not free, your adorabledaughter should deign to regard me, though a Tish, as if I werea civilised An, and- and- and---"Court you as her spouse," put in Aph-Lin, gravely, and without any visible sign of surprise or displeasure.

"You have said it."

"That would be a misfortune," resumed my host, after a pause,"and I feel you have acted as you ought in warning me. It is,as you imply, not uncommon for an unwedded Gy to conceivetastes as to the object she covets which appear whimsical toothers; but there is no power to compel a young Gy to anycourse opposed to that which she chooses to pursue. All we canto is to reason with her, and experience tells us that thewhole College of Sages would find it vain to reason with a Gy

in a matter that concerns her choice in love. I grieve foryou, because such a marriage would be against the A-glauran, orgood of the community, for the children of such a marriagewould adulterate the race: they might even come into the worldwith the teeth of carnivorous animals; this could not beallowed: Zee, as a Gy, cannot be controlled; but you, as aTish, can be destroyed. I advise you, then, to resist heraddresses; to tell her plainly that you can never return her



love. This happens constantly. Many an An, however, ardentlywooed by one Gy, rejects her, and puts an end to herpersecution by wedding another. The same course is open toyou."

"No; for I cannot wed another Gy without equally injuring thecommunity, and exposing it to the chance of rearing carnivorouschildren."

"That is true. All I can say, and I say it with the tendernessdue to a Tish, and the respect due to a guest, is frankly this-if you yield, you will become a cinder. I must leave it to youto take the best way you can to defend yourself. Perhaps youhad better tell Zee that she is ugly. That assurance on thelips of him she woos generally suffices to chill the mostardent Gy. Here we are at my country-house."

Chapter XXIII.

I confess that my conversation with Aph-Lin, and the extremecoolness with which he stated his inability to control thedangerous caprice of his daughter, and treated the idea of thereduction into a cinder to which her amorous flame might exposemy too seductive person, took away the pleasure I should

otherwise have had in the contemplation of my host'scountry-seat, and the astonishing perfection of the machineryby which his farming operations were conducted. The housediffered in appearance from the massive and sombre buildingwhich Aph-Lin inhabited in the city, and which seemed akin tothe rocks out of which the city itself had been hewn intoshape. The walls of the country-seat were composed by treesplaced a few feet apart from each other, the interstices beingfilled in with the transparent metallic substance which servesthe purpose of glass among the Ana. These trees were all in

flower, and the effect was very pleasing, if not in the besttaste. We were received at the porch by life-like automata,who conducted us into a chamber, the like to which I never sawbefore, but have often on summer days dreamily imagined. Itwas a bower- half room, half garden. The walls were one massof climbing flowers. The open spaces, which we call windows,and in which, here, the metallic surfaces were slided back,commanded various views; some, of the wide landscape with its



lakes and rocks; some, of small limited expanses answering toour conservatories, filled with tiers of flowers. Along thesides of the room were flower-beds, interspersed with cushionsfor repose. In the centre of the floor was a cistern and afountain of that liquid light which I have presumed to be

naphtha. It was luminous and of a roseate hue; it sufficedwithout lamps to light up the room with a subdued radiance.All around the fountain was carpeted with a soft deep lichen,not green (I have never seen that colour in the vegetation of this country), but a quiet brown, on which the eye reposes withthe same sense of relief as that with which in the upper worldit reposes on green. In the outlets upon flowers (which I havecompared to our conservatories) there were singing birdsinnumerable, which, while we remained in the room, sang inthose harmonies of tune to which they are, in these parts, sowonderfully trained. The roof was open. The whole scene hadcharms for every sense- music form the birds, fragrance fromthe flowers, and varied beauty to the eye at every aspect.About all was a voluptuous repose. What a place, methought,for a honeymoon, if a Gy bride were a little less formidablyarmed not only with the rights of woman, but with the powers of man! But when one thinks of a Gy, so learned, so tall, sostately, so much above the standard of the creature we callwoman as was Zee, no! even if I had felt no fear of beingreduced to a cinder, it is not of her I should have dreamed inthat bower so constructed for dreams of poetic love.

The automata reappeared, serving one of those delicious liquidswhich form the innocent wines of the Vril-ya.

"Truly," said I, "this is a charming residence, and I canscarcely conceive why you do not settle yourself here insteadof amid the gloomier abodes of the city."

"As responsible to the community for the administration of light, I am compelled to reside chiefly in the city, and can

only come hither for short intervals.""But since I understand from you that no honours are attached toyour office, and it involves some trouble, why do you acceptit?"

"Each of us obeys without question the command of the Tur. Hesaid, 'Be it requested that Aph-Lin shall be the Commissioner





"All! Certainly not; the governors that most please some aresure to be those most displeasing to others."

"Then our system is better than yours."

"For you it may be; but according to our system a Tish couldnot be reduced to a cinder if a female compelled him to marryher; and as a Tish I sigh to return to my native world."

"Take courage, my dear little guest; Zee can't compel you tomarry her. She can only entice you to do so. Don't beenticed. Come and look round my domain."

We went forth into a close, bordered with sheds; for though theAna keep no stock for food, there are some animals which theyrear for milking and others for shearing. The former have noresemblance to our cows, nor the latter to our sheep, nor do Ibelieve such species exist amongst them. They use the milk of three varieties of animal: one resembles the antelope, but ismuch larger, being as tall as a camel; the other two aresmaller, and, though differing somewhat from each other,resemble no creature I ever saw on earth. They are very sleekand of rounded proportions; their colour that of the dappleddeer, with very mild countenances and beautiful dark eyes. Themilk of these three creatures differs in richness and taste.

It is usually diluted with water, and flavoured with the juiceof a peculiar and perfumed fruit, and in itself is verynutritious and palatable. The animal whose fleece serves themfor clothing and many other purposes, is more like the Italianshe-goat than any other creature, but is considerably larger,has no horns, and is free from the displeasing odour of ourgoats. Its fleece is not thick, but very long and fine; itvaries in colour, but is never white, more generally of aslate-like or lavender hue. For clothing it is usually worndyed to suit the taste of the wearer. These animals were

exceedingly tame, and were treated with extraordinary care andaffection by the children (chiefly female) who tended them.

We then went through vast storehouses filled with grains andfruits. I may here observe that the main staple of food amongthese people consists- firstly, of a kind of corn much largerin ear than our wheat, and which by culture is perpetuallybeing brought into new varieties of flavour; and, secondly, of



a fruit of about the size of a small orange, which, whengathered, is hard and bitter. It is stowed away for manymonths in their warehouses, and then becomes succulent andtender. Its juice, which is of dark-red colour, enters intomost of their sauces. They have many kinds of fruit of the

nature of the olive, from which delicious oils are extracted.They have a plant somewhat resembling the sugar-cane, but its

juices are less sweet and of a delicate perfume. They have nobees nor honey-making insects, but they make much use of asweet gum that oozes from a coniferous plant, not unlike thearaucaria. Their soil teems also with esculent roots andvegetables, which it is the aim of their culture to improve andvary to the utmost. And I never remember any meal among thispeople, however it might be confined to the family household,in which some delicate novelty in such articles of food was notintroduced. In fine, as I before observed, their cookery isexquisite, so diversified and nutritious that one does not missanimal food; and their own physical forms suffice to show thatwith them, at least, meat is not required for superiorproduction of muscular fibre. They have no grapes- the drinksextracted from their fruits are innocent and refreshing. Theirstaple beverage, however, is water, in the choice of which theyare very fastidious, distinguishing at once the slightestimpurity.

"My younger son takes great pleasure in augmenting our

produce," said Aph-Lin as we passed through the storehouses,"and therefore will inherit these lands, which constitute thechief part of my wealth. To my elder son such inheritancewould be a great trouble and affliction."

"Are there many sons among you who think the inheritance of vast wealth would be a great trouble and affliction?"

"Certainly; there are indeed very few of the Vril-ya who do notconsider that a fortune much above the average is a heavy

burden. We are rather a lazy people after the age of childhood, and do not like undergoing more cares than we canhelp, and great wealth does give its owner many cares. Forinstance, it marks us out for public offices, which none of uslike and none of us can refuse. It necessitates our taking acontinued interest in the affairs of any of our poorercountrymen, so that we may anticipate their wants and see thatnone fall into poverty. There is an old proverb amongst us



which says, 'The poor man's need is the rich man's shame---'"

"Pardon me, if I interrupt you for a moment. You allow thatsome, even of the Vril-ya, know want, and need relief."

"If by want you mean the destitution that prevails in aKoom-Posh, THAT is impossible with us, unless an An has, bysome extraordinary process, got rid of all his means, cannot orwill not emigrate, and has either tired out the affectionateaid of this relations or personal friends, or refuses to acceptit."

"Well, then, does he not supply the place of an infant orautomaton, and become a labourer- a servant?"

"No; then we regard him as an unfortunate person of unsoundreason, and place him, at the expense of the State, in a publicbuilding, where every comfort and every luxury that canmitigate his affliction are lavished upon him. But an An doesnot like to be considered out of his mind, and therefore suchcases occur so seldom that the public building I speak of isnow a deserted ruin, and the last inmate of it was an An whom Irecollect to have seen in my childhood. He did not seemconscious of loss of reason, and wrote glaubs (poetry). When Ispoke of wants, I meant such wants as an An with desires largerthan his means sometimes entertains- for expensive

singing-birds, or bigger houses, or country-gardens; and theobvious way to satisfy such wants is to buy of him somethingthat he sells. Hence Ana like myself, who are very rich, areobliged to buy a great many things they do not require, andlive on a very large scale where they might prefer to live on asmall one. For instance, the great size of my house in thetown is a source of much trouble to my wife, and even tomyself; but I am compelled to have it thus incommodiouslylarge, because, as the richest An of the community, I amappointed to entertain the strangers from the other communities

when they visit us, which they do in great crowds twice-a-year,when certain periodical entertainments are held, and whenrelations scattered throughout all the realms of the Vril-ya

joyfully reunite for a time. This hospitality, on a scale soextensive, is not to my taste, and therefore I should have beenhappier had I been less rich. But we must all bear the lotassigned to us in this short passage through time that we calllife. After all, what are a hundred years, more or less, to



the ages through which we must pass hereafter? Luckily, I haveone son who likes great wealth. It is a rare exception to thegeneral rule, and I own I cannot myself understand it."

After this conversation I sought to return to the subject which

continued to weigh on my heart- viz., the chances of escapefrom Zee. But my host politely declined to renew that topic,and summoned our air-boat. On our way back we were met by Zee,who, having found us gone, on her return from the College of Sages, had unfurled her wings and flown in search of us.

Her grand, but to me unalluring, countenance brightened as shebeheld me, and, poising herself beside the boat on her largeoutspread plumes, she said reproachfully to Aph-Lin- "Oh,father, was it right in you to hazard the life of your guest ina vehicle to which he is so unaccustomed? He might, by anincautious movement, fall over the side; and alas; he is notlike us, he has no wings. It were death to him to fall. Dearone!" (she added, accosting my shrinking self in a softervoice), "have you no thought of me, that you should thus hazarda life which has become almost a part of mine? Never again bethus rash, unless I am thy companion. What terror thou haststricken into me!"

I glanced furtively at Aph-Lin, expecting, at least, that hewould indignantly reprove his daughter for expressions of

anxiety and affection, which, under all the circumstances,would, in the world above ground, be considered immodest in thelips of a young female, addressed to a male not affianced toher, even if of the same rank as herself.

But so confirmed are the rights of females in that region, andso absolutely foremost among those rights do females claim theprivilege of courtship, that Aph-Lin would no more have thoughtof reproving his virgin daughter than he would have thought of disobeying the orders of the Tur. In that country, custom, as

he implied, is all in all.He answered mildly, "Zee, the Tish is in no danger and it is mybelief the he can take very good care of himself."

"I would rather that he let me charge myself with his care.Oh, heart of my heart, it was in the thought of thy danger thatI first felt how much I loved thee!"



Never did man feel in such a false position as I did. Thesewords were spoken loud in the hearing of Zee's father- in thehearing of the child who steered. I blushed with shame forthem, and for her, and could not help replying angrily: "Zee,

either you mock me, which, as your father's guest, misbecomesyou, or the words you utter are improper for a maiden Gy toaddress even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed herwith the consent of her parents. How much more improper toaddress them to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit youraffections, and who can never regard you with other sentimentsthan those of reverence and awe!"

Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing.

"Be not so cruel!" exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents."Can love command itself where it is truly felt? Do you supposethat a maiden Gy will conceal a sentiment that it elevates herto feel? What a country you must have come from!"

Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tish-a therights of your sex do not appear to be established, and at allevents my guest may converse with you more freely if uncheckedby the presence of others."

To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender

reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward.

"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I saidbitterly, "in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me."

"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in herlove affairs is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counselto come between her and her affections."

Chapter XXIV.

On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in thehall with a request that he would be present at the funeralobsequies of a relation who had recently departed from thatnether world.



Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst thispeople, and, glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion todefer an encounter with Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might bepermitted to witness with him the interment of his relation;unless, indeed, it were regarded as one of those sacred

ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not beadmitted.

"The departure of an An to a happier world," answered my host,"when, as in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long inthis as to have lost pleasure in it, is rather a cheerfulthough quiet festival than a sacred ceremony, and you mayaccompany me if you will."

Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main streetto a house at some little distance, and, entering the hall,were conducted to a room on the ground floor, where we foundseveral persons assembled round a couch on which was laid thedeceased. It was an old man, who had, as I was told, livedbeyond his 130th year. To judge by the calm smile on hiscountenance, he had passed away without suffering. One of thesons, who was now the head of the family, and who seemed invigorous middle life, though he was considerably more thanseventy, stepped forward with a cheerful face and told Aph-Lin"that the day before he died his father had seen in a dream hisdeparted Gy, and was eager to be reunited to her, and restored

to youth beneath the nearer smile of the All-Good."

While these two were talking, my attention was drawn to a darkmetallic substance at the farther end of the room. It wasabout twenty feet in length, narrow in proportion, and allclosed round, save, near the roof, there were small round holesthrough which might be seen a red light. From the interioremanated a rich and sweet perfume; and while I was conjecturingwhat purpose this machine was to serve, all the time-pieces inthe town struck the hour with their solemn musical chime; and

as that sound ceased, music of a more joyous character, butstill of a joy subdued and tranquil, rang throughout thechamber, and from the walls beyond, in a choral peal.Symphonious with the melody, those in the room lifted theirvoices in chant. The words of this hymn were simple. Theyexpressed no regret, no farewell, but rather a greeting to thenew world whither the deceased had preceded the living.Indeed, in their language, the funeral hymn is called the



'Birth Song.' Then the corpse, covered by a long cerement, wastenderly lifted up by six of the nearest kinfolk and bornetowards the dark thing I have described. I pressed forward tosee what happened. A sliding door or panel at one end waslifted up- the body deposited within, on a shelf- the door

reclosed- a spring a the side touched- a sudden 'whishing,'sighing sound heard from within; and lo! at the other end of the machine the lid fell down, and a small handful of smouldering dust dropped into a 'patera' placed to receive it.The son took up the 'patera' and said (in what I understoodafterwards was the usual form of words), "Behold how great isthe Maker! To this little dust He gave form and life and soul.It needs not this little dust for Him to renew form and lifeand soul to the beloved one we shall soon see again."

Each present bowed his head and pressed his hand to his heart.Then a young female child opened a small door within the wall,and I perceived, in the recess, shelves on which were placedmany 'paterae' like that which the son held, save that they allhad covers. With such a cover a Gy now approached the son, andplaced it over the cup, on which it closed with a spring. Onthe lid were engraven the name of the deceased, and thesewords:- "Lent to us" (here the date of birth). "Recalled fromus" (here the date of death).

The closed door shut with a musical sound, and all was over.

Chapter XXV.

"And this," said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed-"this, I presume, is your usual form of burial?"

"Our invariable form," answered Aph-Lin. "What is it amongstyour people?"

"We inter the body whole within the earth."

"What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, thewife on whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of corruption?"

"But if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body



waste within the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism,worked, no doubt by the agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?"

"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on amatter of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and

repulsive, and would serve to invest death with gloomy andhideous associations. It is something, too, to my mind, to beable to preserve the token of what has been our kinsman orfriend within the abode in which we live. We thus feel moresensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. Butour sentiments in this, as in all things, are created bycustom. Custom is not to be changed by a wise An, any morethan it is changed by a wise Community, without the greatestdeliberation, followed by the most earnest conviction. It isonly thus that change ceases to be changeability, and once madeis made for good.

When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of thechildren in his service and sent them round to several of hisfriends, requesting their attendance that day, during the EasyHours, to a festival in honour of his kinsman's recall to theAll-Good. This was the largest and gayest assembly I everwitnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was prolonged farinto the Silent Hours.

The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially

for grand occasions. This differed from our entertainments,and was not without a certain resemblance to those we read of in the luxurious age of the Roman empire. There was not onegreat table set out, but numerous small tables, eachappropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyondthat number conversation languishes and friendship cools. TheAna never laugh loud, as I have before observed, but thecheerful ring of their voices at the various tables betokenedgaiety of intercourse. As they have no stimulant drinks, andare temperate in food, though so choice and dainty, the banquet

itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor,and then came musical entertainments for those who liked them.Many, however, wandered away:- some of the younger ascended intheir wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances;others strolled through the various apartments, examining thecuriosities with which they were stored, or formed themselvesinto groups for various games, the favourite of which is acomplicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed



with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the conversationby the constant companionship of one or the other of my host'ssons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. Theguests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grownaccustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets,

and I had ceased to excite much curiosity.

To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought toexcite my jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsomeyoung An, who (though, as is the modest custom of the maleswhen addressed by females, he answered with downcast eyes andblushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young ladies new tothe world are in most civilised countries, except England andAmerica) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and readyto falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed.Fervently hoping that she would, and more and more averse tothe idea of reduction to a cinder after I had seen the rapiditywith which a human body can be hurried into a pinch of dust, Iamused myself by watching the manners of the other youngpeople. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was nosingular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever Iturned my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gywas the wooing party, and the An the coy and reluctant one.The pretty innocent airs which an An gave himself on being thuscourted, the dexterity with which he evaded direct answers toprofessions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering

compliments addressed to him, would have done honour to themost accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons weresubjected greatly to these seductive influences, and bothacquitted themselves with wonderful honour to their tact andself-control.

I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employmentsto the management of a great property, and who was of aneminently philosophical temperament,- "I find it difficult toconceive how at your age, and with all the intoxicating effects

on the senses, of music and lights and perfumes, you can be socold to that impassioned young Gy who has just left you withtears in her eyes at your cruelty."

The young An replied with a sigh, "Gentle Tish, the greatestmisfortune in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love withanother."



"Oh! You are in love with another?"

"Alas! Yes."

"And she does not return your love?"

"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; butshe has never plainly told me that she loves me."

"Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?"

"Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from?Could I so betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly-so lost to shame, as to own love to a Gy who has not firstowned hers to me?"

"Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of your sex so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, 'I loveyou,' till she says it first to him?"

"I can't say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does,he is disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despisedby the Gy-ei. No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; shewould consider that he audaciously infringed on the rights of her sex, while outraging the modesty which dignifies his own.It is very provoking," continued the An, "for she whom I love

has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but think shelikes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court mebecause she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement asto the surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot reallylove me, for where a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights."

"Is this young Gy present?"

"Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother."

I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided,and saw a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among thispeople is a sign that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. Shewears gray, a neutral tint, to indicate that she is lookingabout for a spouse; dark purple if she wishes to intimate thatshe has made a choice; purple and orange when she is betrothedor married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, andwould marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen.



Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it isdifficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My youngfriend's choice seemed to me to possess the average of goodlooks; but there was an expression in her face that pleased me

more than did the faces of the young Gy-ei generally, becauseit looked less bold- less conscious of female rights. Iobserved that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from timeto time, sidelong at my young friend.

"Courage," said I, "that young Gy loves you."

"Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?"

"Your mother is aware of your attachment?"

"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly toconfide such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; hemay have told it again to his wife."

"Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behindyour mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking aboutyou. Do not hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself to be questioned till I rejoin you."

The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly

on the head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stoleunobserved behind his mother and his beloved. I overheardtheir talk.

Bra was speaking; said she, "There can be no doubt of this:either my son, who is of marriageable age, will be decoyed intomarriage with one of his many suitors, or he will join thosewho emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. If you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should propose."

"I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever winhis affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces;and I am not like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could notenter into his favourite pursuits, and then he would get tiredof me, and at the end of three years divorce me, and I couldnever marry another- never."

"It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be



so necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares fortimepieces, that he would rather give up the timepieces thandivorce his Gy. You see, my dear Lo," continued Bra, "thatprecisely because we are the stronger sex, we rule the otherprovided we never show our strength. If you were superior to

my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as hiswife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in thatart to yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of theGy in all except his own special pursuit. But if she eitherexcels him in that, or affects not to admire him for hisproficiency in it, he will not love her very long; perhaps hemay even divorce her. But where a Gy really loves, she soonlearns to love all that the An does."

The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked downmusingly, then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, stillsilent, and went through the crowd till she paused by the youngAn who loved her. I followed her steps, but discreetly stoodat a little distance while I watched them. Somewhat to mysurprise, till I recollected the coy tactics among the Ana, thelover seemed to receive her advances with an air of indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps,and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanishedamid the luminous space above.

Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled

with the crowd distinguished by no signs of deference orhomage. It so happened that I had not seen this greatdignitary since the day I had entered his dominions, andrecalling Aph-Lin's words as to his terrible doubt whether ornot I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the sightof his tranquil countenance.

"I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee," said the Tur,laying his hand politely on my bended head. "He is very fondof your society, and I trust you are not displeased with the

customs of our people."I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to bean assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had receivedfrom the Tur, and my admiration of his countrymen, but thedissecting-knife gleamed before my mind's eye and choked myutterance. A softer voice said, "My brother's friend must bedear to me." And looking up I saw a young Gy, who might be



sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and gazing atme with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to herfull growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about 5feet 10 inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutivestature, I thought her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I

suppose something in my eyes revealed that impression, for hercountenance grew yet more benignant."Taee tells me," she said, "that you have not yet learned toaccustom yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should haveliked to fly with you."

"Alas!" I replied, "I can never hope to enjoy that happiness.I am assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditarygift, and it would take generations before one of my race couldpoise himself in the air like a bird."

"Let not that thought vex you too much," replied this amiablePrincess, "for, after all, there must come a day when Zee andmyself must resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that daycomes we might be glad if the An we chose was also withoutwings."

The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I beganto feel at ease with Taee's charming sister, and ratherstartled her by the boldness of my compliment in replying,"that no An she could choose would ever use his wings to fly

away from her." It is so against custom for an An to say suchcivil things to a Gy till she has declared her passion for him,and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young maiden stoodquite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she did notseem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me toaccompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen tothe songs of the birds. I followed her steps as she glidedbefore me, and she led me into a chamber almost deserted. Afountain of naphtha was playing in the centre of the room;round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls of the room

were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds werechanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of the divans, and I placed myself at her side. "Taee tells me,"she said, "that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house thatyou are not to be questioned as to the country you come from orthe reason why you visit us. Is it so?"

* Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words



synonymous with law, as implying forcible obligation, areavoided by this singular people. Even had it been decreed bythe Tur that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decreewould have ran blandly thus,- "Be it requested that, for thegood of the community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to

submit himself to dissection."

"It is."

"May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask atleast if the Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colouras yourself, and no taller?"

"I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of Aph-Lin, which is more binding on myself than any one, if Ianswer questions so innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are muchfairer of hue than I am, and their average height is at least ahead shorter than mine."

"They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But Isuppose their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinarydisadvantage of size?"

"They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But stillthey are very powerful in my country, and an An has smallchance of a happy life if he be not more or less governed by

his Gy."

"You speak feelingly," said Taee's sister, in a tone of voicehalf sad, half petulant. "You are married, of course."

"No- certainly not."

"Nor betrothed?"

"Nor betrothed."

"Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?"

"In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first."

"What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!" said the maiden,"and what want of modesty in your sex! But have you neverproposed,



never loved one Gy more than another?"

I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said,"Pardon me, but I think we are beginning to infringe uponAph-Lin's injunction. This much only will I answer, and then,

I implore you, ask no more. I did once feel the preference youspeak of; I did propose, and the Gy would willingly haveaccepted me, but her parents refused their consent."

"Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents caninterfere with the choice of their daughters?"

"Indeed they can, and do very often."

"I should not like to live in that country, said the Gy simply;"but I hope you will never go back to it."

I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face withher right hand, and looked into it tenderly. "Stay with us,"she said; "stay with us, and be loved."

What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming a cinder Imight have encountered, I still trouble to think, when thelight of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of wings; and Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted besideus. She said not a word, but, taking my arm with her mighty

hand, she drew me away, as a mother draws a naughty child, andled me through the apartments to one of the corridors, onwhich, by the mechanism they generally prefer to stairs, weascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on myforehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantlyplunged into a profound sleep.

When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birdsin the adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee's sister, hergentle looks and caressing words, vividly returned to me; and

so impossible is it for one born and reared in our upperworld's state of society to divest himself of ideas dictated byvanity and ambition, that I found myself instinctively buildingproud castles in the air.

"Tish though I be," thus ran my meditations- "Tish though I be,it is then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearancecan captivate. Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first



maiden of this land, the daughter of the absolute Monarch whoseautocracy they so idly seek to disguise by the republican titleof chief magistrate. But for the sudden swoop of that horribleZee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed to me; andthough it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a

subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threatenme with destruction if I accept his daughter's hand, yet aSovereign, whose word is law, could compel the community toabrogate any custom that forbids intermarriage with one of astrange race, and which in itself is a contradiction to theirboasted equality of ranks.

"It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke withsuch incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, wouldnot have sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save mefrom the combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form.And if I were exalted by such an alliance, who knows but whatthe Monarch might elect me as his successor? Why not? Few amongthis indolent race of philosophers like the burden of suchgreatness. All might be pleased to see the supreme powerlodged in the hands of an accomplished stranger who hasexperience of other and livelier forms of existence; and oncechosen, what reforms I would institute! What additions to thereally pleasant but too monotonous life of this realm myfamiliarity with the civilised nations above ground wouldeffect! I am fond of the sports of the field. Next to war, is

not the chase a king's pastime? In what varieties of strangegame does this nether world abound? How interesting to strikedown creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge!But how? By that terrible vril, in which, from want of hereditary transmission, I could never be a proficient? No, butby a civilised handy breech-loader, which these ingeniousmechanicians could not only make, but no doubt improve; nay,surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, Ishould discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war.Apropos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so

intelligent, so rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not thisrestriction a mere philosophical crotchet, at variance with theaspiring element in human nature, such as has been partially,and with complete failure, tried in the upper world by the lateMr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with theneighbouring nations as well armed as one's own subjects; butthen, what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted



with vril, and apparently resembling, in their democraticinstitutions, my American countrymen? One might invade themwithout offence to the vril nations, our allies, appropriatetheir territories, extending, perhaps, to the most distantregions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire in

which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, thatover those regions there was no sun to set). As for thefantastical notion against conceding fame or renown to aneminent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal of honoursinsures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angrypassions, and mars the felicity of peace- it is opposed to thevery elements, not only of the human, but of the brutecreation, which are all, if tamable, participators in thesentiment of praise and emulation. What renown would be givento a king who thus extended his empire! I should be deemed ademigod." Thinking of that, the other fanatical notion of regulating this life by reference to one which, no doubt, weChristians firmly believe in, but never take intoconsideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelledme to abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variancewith modern thought and practical action. Musing over thesevarious projects, I felt how much I should have liked at thatmoment to brighten my wits by a good glass of whiskey-and-water.Not that I am habitually a spirit-drinker, but certainly thereare times when a little stimulant of alcoholic nature, takenwith a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes; certainly among

these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from which onecould extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cutoff one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to rejectthe animal food which our first medical men agree inrecommending to the gastric juices of mankind!) one wouldcertainly pass a more exhilirating hour of repast. Then, too,instead of those antiquated dramas performed by childishamateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce ourmodern opera and a 'corps de ballet,' for which one might find,among the nations I shall conquer, young females of less

formidable height and thews than the Gy-ei- not armed withvril, and not insisting upon one's marrying them.

I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms,political, social, and moral, calculated to bestow on thepeople of the nether world the blessings of a civilisationknown to the races of the upper, that I did not perceive thatZee had entered the chamber till I heard a deep sigh, and,









so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve that love, for Icannot return it."

Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her faceaway to hide her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along

the room, and paused at the threshold. Suddenly, impelled asby a new thought, she returned to my side and said, in awhispered tone,-

"You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. Withperfect frankness, then, answer me this question. If youcannot love me, do you love another?"

"Certainly, I do not."

"You do not love Taee's sister?"

"I never saw her before last night."

"That is no answer. Love is swifter than vril. You hesitateto tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy that prompts meto caution you. If the Tur's daughter should declare love toyou- if in her ignorance she confides to her father anypreference that may justify his belief that she will woo you,he will have no option but to request your immediatedestruction, as he is specially charged with the duty of

consulting the good of the community, which could not allow thedaughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the Tish-a, in thatsense of marriage which does not confine itself to union of thesouls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She hasno strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has noscience wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believethat here my friendship speaks, and that my jealousy issilent."

With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I

thought no more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, orof the political, social, and moral reforms I should institutein the capacity of Absolute Sovereign.



Chapter XXVI.

After the conversation with Zee just recorded, I fell into aprofound melancholy. The curious interest with which I had

hitherto examined the life and habits of this marvellouscommunity was at an end. I could not banish from my mind theconsciousness that I was among a people who, however kind andcourteous, could destroy me at any moment without scruple orcompunction. The virtuous and peaceful life of the peoplewhich, while new to me, had seemed so holy a contrast to thecontentions, the passions, the vices of the upper world, nowbegan to oppress me with a sense of dulness and monotony. Eventhe serene tranquility of the lustrous air preyed on myspirits. I longed for a change, even to winter, or storm, ordarkness. I began to feel that, whatever our dreams of perfectibility, our restless aspirations towards a better, andhigher, and calmer, sphere of being, we, the mortals of theupper world, are not trained or fitted to enjoy for long thevery happiness of which we dream or to which we aspire.

Now, in this social state of the Vril-ya, it was singular tomark how it contrived to unite and to harmonise into one systemnearly all the objects which the various philosophers of theupper world have placed before human hopes as the ideals of aUtopian future. It was a state in which war, with all its

calamities, was deemed impossible,- a state in which thefreedom of all and each was secured to the uttermost degree,without one of those animosities which make freedom in theupper world depend on the perpetual strife of hostile parties.Here the corruption which debases democracies was as unknown asthe discontents which undermine the thrones of monarchies.Equality here was not a name; it was a reality. Riches werenot persecuted, because they were not envied. Here thoseproblems connected with the labours of a working class,hitherto insoluble above ground, and above ground conducing to

such bitterness between classes, were solved by a process thesimplest,- a distinct and separate working class was dispensedwith altogether. Mechanical inventions, constructed on theprinciples that baffled my research to ascertain, worked by anagency infinitely more powerful and infinitely more easy of management than aught we have yet extracted from electricity orsteam, with the aid of children whose strength was neverovertasked, but who loved their employment as sport and



pastime, sufficed to create a Public-wealth so devoted to thegeneral use that not a grumbler was ever heard of. The vicesthat rot our cities here had no footing. Amusements abounded,but they were all innocent. No merry-makings conduced tointoxication, to riot, to disease. Love existed, and was

ardent in pursuit, but its object, once secured, was faithful.The adulterer, the profligate, the harlot, were phenomena sounknown in this commonwealth, that even to find the words bywhich they were designated one would have had to searchthroughout an obsolete literature composed thousands of yearsbefore. They who have been students of theoreticalphilosophies above ground, know that all these strangedepartures from civilised life do but realise ideas which havebeen broached, canvassed, ridiculed, contested for; sometimespartially tried, and still put forth in fantastic books, buthave never come to practical result. Nor were these all thesteps towards theoretical perfectibility which this communityhad made. It had been the sober belief of Descartes that thelife of man could be prolonged, not, indeed, on this earth, toeternal duration, but to what he called the age of thepatriarchs, and modestly defined to be from 100 to 150 yearsaverage length. Well, even this dream of sages was herefulfilled- nay, more than fulfilled; for the vigour of middlelife was preserved even after the term of a century was passed.With this longevity was combined a greater blessing thanitself- that of continuous health. Such diseases as befell the

race were removed with ease by scientific applications of thatagency- life-giving as life-destroying- which is inherent invril. Even this idea is not unknown above ground, though ithas generally been confined to enthusiasts or charlatans, andemanates from confused notions about mesmerism, odic force, &c.Passing by such trivial contrivances as wings, which everyschoolboy knows has been tried and found wanting, from themythical or pre-historical period, I proceed to that verydelicate question, urged of late as essential to the perfecthappiness of our human species by the two most disturbing and

potential influences on upper-ground society,- Womankind andPhilosophy. I mean, the Rights of Women.

Now, it is allowed by jurisprudists that it is idle to talk of rights where there are not corresponding powers to enforcethem; and above ground, for some reason or other, man, in hisphysical force, in the use of weapons offensive and defensive,when it come to positive personal contest, can, as a rule of



general application, master women. But among this people therecan be no doubt about the rights of women, because, as I havebefore said, the Gy, physically speaking, is bigger andstronger than the An; and her will being also more resolutethan his, and will being essential to the direction of the vril

force, she can bring to bear upon him, more potently than he onherself, the mystical agency which art can extract from theoccult properties of nature. Therefore all that our femalephilosophers above ground contend for as to rights of women, isconceded as a matter of course in this happy commonwealth.Besides such physical powers, the Gy-ei have (at least inyouth) a keen desire for accomplishments and learning whichexceeds that of the male; and thus they are the scholars, theprofessors- the learned portion, in short, of the community.

Of course, in this state of society the female establishes, asI have shown, her most valued privilege, that of choosing andcourting her wedding partner. Without that privilege she woulddespise all the others. Now, above ground, we should notunreasonably apprehend that a female, thus potent and thusprivileged, when she had fairly hunted us down and married us,would be very imperious and tyrannical. Not so with the Gy-ei:once married, the wings once suspended, and more amiable,complacent, docile mates, more sympathetic, more sinking theirloftier capacities into the study of their husbands'comparatively frivolous tastes and whims, no poet could

conceive in his visions of conjugal bliss. Lastly, among themore important characteristics of the Vril-ya, as distinguishedfrom our mankind- lastly, and most important on the bearings of their life and the peace of their commonwealths, is theiruniversal agreement in the existence of a merciful beneficentDiety, and of a future world to the duration of which a centuryor two are moments too brief to waste upon thoughts of fame andpower and avarice; while with that agreement is combinedanother- viz., since they can know nothing as to the nature of that Diety beyond the fact of His supreme goodness, nor of that

future world beyond the fact of its felicitous existence, sotheir reason forbids all angry disputes on insoluble questions.Thus they secure for that state in the bowels of the earth whatno community ever secured under the light of the stars- all theblessings and consolations of a religion without any of theevils and calamities which are engendered by strife between onereligion and another.



It would be, then, utterly impossible to deny that the state of existence among the Vril-ya is thus, as a whole, immeasurablymore felicitous than that of super-terrestrial races, and,realising the dreams of our most sanguine philanthropists,almost approaches to a poet's conception of some angelical

order. And yet, if you would take a thousand of the best andmost philosophical of human beings you could find in London,Paris, Berlin, New York, or even Boston, and place them ascitizens in the beatified community, my belief is, that in lessthan a year they would either die of ennui, or attempt somerevolution by which they would militate against the good of thecommunity, and be burnt into cinders at the request of the Tur.

Certainly I have no desire to insinuate, through the medium of this narrative, any ignorant disparagement of the race to whichI belong. I have, on the contrary, endeavoured to make itclear that the principles which regulate the social system of the Vril-ya forbid them to produce those individual examples of human greatness which adorn the annals of the upper world.Where there are no wars there can be no Hannibal, noWashington, no Jackson, no Sheridan;- where states are so happythat they fear no danger and desire no change, they cannot givebirth to a Demosthenes, a Webster, a Sumner, a Wendell Holmes,or a Butler; and where a society attains to a moral standard,in which there are no crimes and no sorrows from which tragedycan extract its aliment of pity and sorrow, no salient vices or

follies on which comedy can lavish its mirthful satire, it haslost the chance of producing a Shakespeare, or a Moliere, or aMrs. Beecher-Stowe. But if I have no desire to disparage myfellow-men above ground in showing how much the motives thatimpel the energies and ambition of individuals in a society of contest and struggle- become dormant or annulled in a societywhich aims at securing for the aggregate the calm and innocentfelicity which we presume to be the lot of beatified immortals;neither, on the other hand, have I the wish to represent thecommonwealths of the Vril-ya as an ideal form of political

society, to the attainment of which our own efforts of reformshould be directed. On the contrary, it is because we have socombined, throughout the series of ages, the elements whichcompose human character, that it would be utterly impossiblefor us to adopt the modes of life, or to reconcile our passionsto the modes of thought among the Vril-ya,- that I arrived atthe conviction that this people- though originally not only of our human race, but, as seems to me clear by the roots of their



language, descended from the same ancestors as the Great Aryanfamily, from which in varied streams has flowed the dominantcivilisation of the world; and having, according to their mythsand their history, passed through phases of society familiar toourselves,- had yet now developed into a distinct species with

which it was impossible that any community in the upper worldcould amalgamate: and that if they ever emerged from thesenether recesses into the light of day, they would, according totheir own traditional persuasions of their ultimate destiny,destroy and replace our existent varieties of man.

It may, indeed, be said, since more than one Gy could be foundto conceive a partiality for so ordinary a type of oursuper-terrestrial race as myself, that even if the Vril-ya didappear above ground, we might be saved from extermination byintermixture of race. But this is too sanguine a belief.Instances of such 'mesalliance' would be as rare as those of intermarriage between the Anglo-Saxon emigrants and the RedIndians. Nor would time be allowed for the operation of familiar intercourse. The Vril-ya, on emerging, induced by thecharm of a sunlit heaven to form their settlements aboveground, would commence at once the work of destruction, seizeupon the territories already cultivated, and clear off, withoutscruple, all the inhabitants who resisted that invasion. Andconsidering their contempt for the institutions of Koom-Posh orPopular Government, and the pugnacious valour of my beloved

countrymen, I believe that if the Vril-ya first appeared infree America- as, being the choicest portion of the habitableearth, they would doubtless be induced to do- and said, "Thisquarter of the globe we take; Citizens of a Koom-Posh, make wayfor the development of species in the Vril-ya," my bravecompatriots would show fight, and not a soul of them would beleft in this life, to rally round the Stars and Stripes, at theend of a week.

I now saw but little of Zee, save at meals, when the family

assembled, and she was then reserved and silent. Myapprehensions of danger from an affection I had so littleencouraged or deserved, therefore, now faded away, but mydejection continued to increase. I pined for escape to theupper world, but I racked my brains in vain for any means toeffect it. I was never permitted to wander forth alone, sothat I could not even visit the spot on which I had alighted,and see if it were possible to reascend to the mine. Nor even



in the Silent Hours, when the household was locked in sleep,could I have let myself down from the lofty floor in which myapartment was placed. I knew not how to command the automatawho stood mockingly at my beck beside the wall, nor could Iascertain the springs by which were set in movement the

platforms that supplied the place of stairs. The knowledge howto avail myself of these contrivances had been purposelywithheld from me. Oh, that I could but have learned the use of wings, so freely here at the service of every infant, then Imight have escaped from the casement, regained the rocks, andbuoyed myself aloft through the chasm of which theperpendicular sides forbade place for human footing!

Chapter XXVII.

One day, as I sat alone and brooding in my chamber, Taee flewin at the open window and alighted on the couch beside me. Iwas always pleased with the visits of a child, in whosesociety, if humbled, I was less eclipsed than in that of Anawho had completed their education and matured theirunderstanding. And as I was permitted to wander forth with himfor my companion, and as I longed to revisit the spot in whichI had descended into the nether world, I hastened to ask him if he were at leisure for a stroll beyond the streets of the city.

His countenance seemed to me graver than usual as he replied,"I came hither on purpose to invite you forth."

We soon found ourselves in the street, and had not got far fromthe house when we encountered five or six young Gy-ei, who werereturning from the fields with baskets full of flowers, andchanting a song in chorus as they walked. A young Gy singsmore often than she talks. They stopped on seeing us,accosting Taee with familiar kindness, and me with thecourteous gallantry which distinguishes the Gy-ei in their

manner towards our weaker sex.And here I may observe that, though a virgin Gy is so frank inher courtship to the individual she favours, there is nothingthat approaches to that general breadth and loudness of mannerwhich those young ladies of the Anglo-Saxon race, to whom thedistinguished epithet of 'fast' is accorded, exhibit towardsyoung gentlemen whom they do not profess to love. No; the



bearing of the Gy-ei towards males in ordinary is very muchthat of high-bred men in the gallant societies of the upperworld towards ladies whom they respect but do not woo;deferential, complimentary, exquisitely polished- what weshould call 'chivalrous.'

Certainly I was a little put out by the number of civil thingsaddressed to my 'amour propre,' which were said to me by thosecourteous young Gy-ei. In the world I came from, a man wouldhave thought himself aggrieved, treated with irony, 'chaffed'(if so vulgar a slang word may be allowed on the authority of the popular novelists who use it so freely), when one fair Gycomplimented me on the freshness of my complexion, another onthe choice of colours in my dress, a third, with a sly smile,on the conquests I had made at Aph-Lin's entertainment. But Iknew already that all such language was what the French call'banal,' and did but express in the female mouth, below earth,that sort of desire to pass for amiable with the opposite sexwhich, above earth, arbitrary custom and hereditarytransmission demonstrate by the mouth of the male. And just asa high-bred young lady, above earth, habituated to suchcompliments, feels that she cannot, without impropriety, returnthem, nor evince any great satisfaction at receiving them; so Iwho had learned polite manners at the house of so wealthy anddignified a Minister of that nation, could but smile and try tolook pretty in bashfully disclaiming the compliments showered

upon me. While we were thus talking, Taee's sister, it seems,had seen us from the upper rooms of the Royal Palace at theentrance of the town, and, precipitating herself on her wings,alighted in the midst of the group.

Singling me out, she said, though still with the inimitabledeference of manner which I have called 'chivalrous,' yet notwithout a certain abruptness of tone which, as addressed to theweaker sex, Sir Philip Sydney might have termed 'rustic,' "Whydo you never come to see us?"

While I was deliberating on the right answer to give to thisunlooked-for question, Taee said quickly and sternly, "Sister,you forget- the stranger is of my sex. It is not for personsof my sex, having due regard for reputation and modesty, tolower themselves by running after the society of yours."

This speech was received with evident approval by the young



Gy-ei in general; but Taee's sister looked greatly abashed.Poor thing!- and a PRINCESS too!

Just at this moment a shadow fell on the space between me andthe group; and, turning round, I beheld the chief magistrate

coming close upon us, with the silent and stately pace peculiarto the Vril-ya. At the sight of his countenance, the sameterror which had seized me when I first beheld it returned. Onthat brow, in those eyes, there was that same indefinablesomething which marked the being of a race fatal to our own-that strange expression of serene exemption from our commoncares and passions, of conscious superior power, compassionateand inflexible as that of a judge who pronounces doom. Ishivered, and, inclining low, pressed the arm of mychild-friend, and drew him onward silently. The Tur placedhimself before our path, regarded me for a moment withoutspeaking, then turned his eye quietly on his daughter's face,and, with a grave salutation to her and the other Gy-ei, wentthrough the midst of the group,- still without a word.

Chapter XXVIII.

When Taee and I found ourselves alone on the broad road thatlay between the city and the chasm through which I had

descended into this region beneath the light of the stars andsun, I said under my breath, "Child and friend, there is a lookin your father's face which appals me. I feel as if, in itsawful tranquillity, I gazed upon death."

Taee did not immediately reply. He seemed agitated, and as if debating with himself by what words to soften some unwelcomeintelligence. At last he said, "None of the Vril-ya feardeath: do you?"

"The dread of death is implanted in the breasts of the race towhich I belong. We can conquer it at the call of duty, of honour, of love. We can die for a truth, for a native land,for those who are dearer to us than ourselves. But if death doreally threaten me now and here, where are such counteractionsto the natural instinct which invests with awe and terror thecontemplation of severance between soul and body?"



Taee looked surprised, but there was great tenderness in hisvoice as he replied, "I will tell my father what you say. Iwill entreat him to spare your life."

"He has, then, already decreed to destroy it?"

"'Tis my sister's fault or folly," said Taee, with somepetulance. "But she spoke this morning to my father; and,after she had spoken, he summoned me, as a chief among thechildren who are commissioned to destroy such lives as threatenthe community, and he said to me, 'Take thy vril staff, andseek the stranger who has made himself dear to thee. Be hisend painless and prompt.'"

"And," I faltered, recoiling from the child- "and it is, then,for my murder that thus treacherously thou hast invited meforth? No, I cannot believe it. I cannot think thee guiltyof such a crime."

"It is no crime to slay those who threaten the good of thecommunity; it would be a crime to slay the smallest insect thatcannot harm us."

"If you mean that I threaten the good of the community becauseyour sister honours me with the sort of preference which achild may feel for a strange plaything, it is not necessary to

kill me. Let me return to the people I have left, and by thechasm through which I descended. With a slight help from you Imight do so now. You, by the aid of your wings, could fastento the rocky ledge within the chasm the cord that you found,and have no doubt preserved. Do but that; assist me but to thespot from which I alighted, and I vanish from your world forever, and as surely as if I were among the dead."

"The chasm through which you descended! Look round; we standnow on the very place where it yawned. What see you? Only

solid rock. The chasm was closed, by the orders of Aph-Lin, assoon as communication between him and yourself was establishedin your trance, and he learned from your own lips the nature of the world from which you came. Do you not remember when Zeebade me not question you as to yourself or your race? Onquitting you that day, Aph-Lin accosted me, and said, 'No pathbetween the stranger's home and ours should be left unclosed,or the sorrow and evil of his home may descend to ours. Take





Chapter XXIX.

In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep andconstituting the night of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from thedisturbed slumber into which I had not long fallen, by a handon my shoulder. I started and beheld Zee standing beside me.

"Hush," she said in a whisper; let no one hear us. Dost thouthink that I have ceased to watch over thy safety because Icould not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailedwith his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the threesages who, in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and bytheir advice he has ordained thee to perish when the worldre-awakens to life. I will save thee. Rise and dress."

Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothesI had worn on quitting the upper world, and which I hadexchanged subsequently for the more picturesque garments of theVril-ya. The young Gy then moved towards the casement andstepped into the balcony, while hastily and wonderingly Idonned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the balcony,her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she saidsoftly, "See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up

the world in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will bedark to me." She drew me back into the room without waiting formy answer, thence into the corridor, from which we descendedinto the hall. We passed into the deserted streets and alongthe broad upward road which wound beneath the rocks. Here,where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hours areunutterably solemn- the vast space illumined by mortal skill isso wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft aswere our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of harmony with the universal repose. I was aware in my own mind,

though Zee said it not, that she had decided to assist myreturn to the upper world, and that we were bound towards theplace from which I had descended. Her silence infected me andcommanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It had beenre-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when Ihad emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rockbefore which I had last stood with Taee, a new clift had beenriven, and along its blackened sides still glimmered sparks and



smouldered embers. My upward gaze could not, however,penetrate more than a few feet into the darkness of the hollowvoid, and I stood dismayed, and wondering how that grim ascentwas to be made.

Zee divined my doubt. "Fear not," said she, with a faintsmile; "your return is assured. I began this work when theSilent Hours commenced, and all else were asleep; believe thatI did not paused till the path back into thy world was clear.I shall be with thee a little while yet. We do not part untilthou sayest, 'Go, for I need thee no more.'"

My heart smote me with remorse at these words. "Ah!" I exclaimed,"would that thou wert of my race or I of thine, then I shouldnever say, "I need thee no more.'"

"I bless thee for those words, and I shall remember them whenthou art gone," answered the Gy, tenderly.

During this brief interchange of words, Zee had turned awayfrom me, her form bent and her head bowed over her breast.Now, she rose to the full height of her grand stature, andstood fronting me. While she had been thus averted from mygaze, she had lighted up the circlet that she wore round herbrow, so that it blazed as if it were a crown of stars. Notonly her face and her form, but the atmosphere around, were

illumined by the effulgence of the diadem.

"Now," said she, "put thine arm around me for the first andlast time. Nay, thus; courage, and cling firm."

As she spoke her form dilated, the vast wings expanded.Clinging to her, I was borne aloft through the terrible chasm.The starry light from her forehead shot around and before usthrough the darkness. Brightly and steadfastly, and swiftly asan angel may soar heavenward with the soul it rescues from the

grave, went the flight of the Gy, till I heard in the distancethe hum of human voices, the sounds of human toil. We haltedon the flooring of one of the galleries of the mine, andbeyond, in the vista, burned the dim, feeble lamps of theminers.

Then I released my hold. The Gy kissed me on my forehead,passionately, but as with a mother's passion, and said, as the



tears gushed from her eyes, "Farewell for ever. Thou wilt notlet me go into thy world- thou canst never return to mine. Ereour household shake off slumber, the rocks will have againclosed over the chasm not to be re-opened by me, nor perhaps byothers, for ages yet unguessed. Think of me sometimes, and

with kindness. When I reach the life that lies beyond thisspeck in time, I shall look round for thee. Even there, theworld consigned to thyself and thy people may have rocks andgulfs which divide it from that in which I rejoin those of myrace that have gone before, and I may be powerless to cleaveway to regain thee as I have cloven way to lose."

Her voice ceased. I heard the swan-like sough of her wings,and saw the rays of her starry diadem receding far and fartherthrough the gloom.

I sate myself down for some time, musing sorrowfully; then Irose and took my way with slow footsteps towards the place inwhich I heard the sounds of men. The miners I encountered werestrange to me, of another nation than my own. They turned tolook at me with some surprise, but finding that I could notanswer their brief questions in their own language, theyreturned to their work and suffered me to pass on unmolested.In fine, I regained the mouth of the mine, little troubled byother interrogatories;- save those of a friendly official towhom I was known, and luckily he was too busy to talk much with

me. I took care not to return to my former lodging, buthastened that very day to quit a neighbourhood where I couldnot long have escaped inquiries to which I could have given nosatisfactory answers. I regained in safety my own country, inwhich I have been long peacefully settled, and engaged inpractical business, till I retired on a competent fortune,three years ago. I have been little invited and little temptedto talk of the rovings and adventures of my youth. Somewhatdisappointed, as most men are, in matters connected withhousehold love and domestic life, I often think of the young Gy

as I sit alone at night, and wonder how I could have rejectedsuch a love, no matter what dangers attended it, or by whatconditions it was restricted. Only, the more I think of apeople calmly developing, in regions excluded from our sightand deemed uninhabitable by our sages, powers surpassing ourmost disciplined modes of force, and virtues to which our life,social and political, becomes antagonistic in proportion as ourcivilisation advances,- the more devoutly I pray that ages may



yet elapse before there emerge into sunlight our inevitabledestroyers. Being, however, frankly told by my physician thatI am afflicted by a complaint which, though it gives littlepain and no perceptible notice of its encroachments, may at anymoment be fatal, I have thought it my duty to my fellow-men to

place on record these forewarnings of The Coming Race.

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Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Coming Race